The Joker Queen
by Purple Sky Juliet
Summary: Queen Elizaveta has been forced into an arranged marriage with King Roderich after her fiance goes missing the night before they are to elope. One day, he turns up again - but he just happens to be the most wanted man in the world, the Joker. PruHun; side pairings of Spamano, GerIta, LietPol; implied USUK, France x Jeanne, and SuFin. Cardverse AU.
1. Chapter 1

_The sun was still bright, casting a diffused light through the green treetops as she rested her arm across her forehead to shade her eyes. Her feet dangled into the crystal-clear, gently flowing brook, and the wind ruffled her hair. She was holding the hand of a teenage boy in her left hand; his patched pants were rolled up so his pale feet could hang in the stream next to hers. He squinted up at the sky and watched the clouds drift by with his alert red eyes. He rolled over and grinned at her suddenly, and she broke into an equal grin that twinkled her grass-green eyes._

_"Just one more day, _liebeling_!" he exclaimed ecstatically. "Then we can get the hell out of here and to some place much more awesome." He brushed the hair off her forehead and kissed it briefly._

_"I can't wait," she replied, leaning forward to brush her lips against his. "We'll be free, finally."_

_A clock tower in the distance chimed ten times and the albino furrowed his brow in annoyance. "That's the call for my sector. _Verdammnt_, it's still light out. Why so early?"_

_"You know you have to go back, love," she said gently. "You can't be caught out after curfew. You know what they would do to you."_

_"Ah, yeah, I know. I'll see you at dawn, then?"_

_"Of course, _szerlem_. I'll be waiting for you."_

_He beamed at her, a one million watt smile. "I love you, Lizzie."_

_"I love you too, Gil." She stood and kissed him firmly on the lips. "Now run, you can't be caught."_

_"I'm too awesome for that!" he declared before pecking her cheek and disappearing off into the grove of trees as the clock tower tolled the warning curfew bell for sector ten. She waited in the meadow while the clock tower chimed the curfews for the rest of the sectors, silently examining the silver engagement ring she hid on a chain under her dress in the fading_ _sunlight. Finally, the chime sounded for sector two, and she stowed the chain away and walked off the opposite way her fiancé had, heading for what she expected to be the last night in her so-called home._

The brunette groaned awake and threw her forearm across her eyes. She felt like she had a hangover, but she knew for a fact she didn't down any booze last night. She cracked one eye open and shifted under the silk sheets. The room around her was green with black and grey accents. Curtains made from green velvet half-covered the large windows from which sunlight streamed in, and the entire room was furnished in plush green furniture with a cherry wood dresser and desk. She opened both eyes up and stared. Where was she? Where was Gilbert? She opened to mouth to call for him, but a glint caught her eye instead.

On her ring finger was a gold band laden with tiny diamonds and a bright emerald in the shape of a club in the center. She blinked at the ring for a second before it all finally clicked in her mind.

She was married. Gilbert wasn't around anymore.

Distressed, she flopped back onto her bed. Now she was all messed up. That dream…why did she always have to remember the last day she saw him? Much less, why did he have to disappear? One day he was there, the next day, it was his younger brother meeting her in the meadow instead of him to explain that Gilbert had never come home the previous evening and was nowhere to be found. No one would search for him in the local government because of his sector number. The government just told his family he'd probably gotten himself killed, and if he was alive, he'd turn up eventually.

A knock sounded on the wooden door to her chamber. "My lady? Are you awake, my lady?"

"Yes," she said groggily, attempting to shake Gilbert from her mind and focus on the current day. "You may enter."

A maid with two pigtails tied with red ribbons entered her room with a quick curtsy. "King Roderich, his Excellency, asked that I summon you for the royal kingdom status meeting in an hour, Queen Elizaveta. He asked that you wear a particularly regal outfit as there will be many emissaries at the meeting."

"But of course," Elizaveta said, rising from the bed and heading into the attached washroom to splash some cold water on her face. "Do you mind picking something out? I'm afraid I'm not terribly focused yet this morning."

"Yes, your Highness."

Elizaveta sighed and splashed another wave of freezing water onto her skin. "Angelique, I've told you a million times that Elizaveta is fine with me."

"I know, your Majesty, but I'd rather not break protocol. The head maid is very particular."

Elizaveta sighed and decided the argument wasn't worth her time today. She exited the washroom and slipped on the gown Angelique had selected for her; a flowing, deep emerald garment that just swished across the stone floor when she walked with a fitted bodice and cascading skirt. She clasped on the Queen's necklace, a simple sliver chain with a black and green club charm dangling off the end. She stuck her signature pink flowers in her hair and smiled to herself as she did so; Gilbert had planted the idea in her head when she was young and it had stuck ever since. Wearing pink flowers instead of Club's green throughout her hair during her wedding had been her own secret rebellion that no one would ever understand.

Angelique opened the thick door for her, and she glided out of her chambers and down the hallways towards the receiving room. Her black boots concealed under her dress clicked and echoed off the stone floors and walls of the Clubs palace, and paintings' eyes followed her every move as she clicked alone down the hallway. No servants were running about, and no other residents of the palace were moving about. She had always been uneasy about the constant silence; she liked noise and bustle instead of silent and proper conduct.

She reached the doors to the receiving room and pushed them open. Her head held high, she glided into the room and glanced at the long oval table at which delegates from Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds sat, along with key members of her husband's advisory committee. The only empty seat was her green throne next to Roderich, who was looking at her with an emotionless face.

"Good morning, Elizaveta. Please take your seat so we may begin."

"Yes, your Highness," she replied robotically and walked across the floor to take her seat at the head of the table. She sat up straight in the chair, her hands folded in her lap, and gazed out across the table. The King nodded to a duke from the bordering kingdom of Hearts– she could never remember the man's name, but it wasn't as if she actually cared about what he was to say – to begin the proceedings. The man stood and shuffled his papers and began to drone on about trade between Hearts and Clubs and how much both economies had benefitted from the latest free trade agreement. Elizaveta stifled a yawn and instead focused on a painting of a landscape on the back wall. She vaguely noticed the defense minister for Clubs stand up and begin to give his speech, but she was preoccupied with the painting and thoughts she found more interesting.

"…as for the border with Hearts, we've had some issues recently with the Joker…he's been described as a medium-tall, pale-skinned, white-haired, red-eyed male…"

Elizaveta jolted out of her pondering of the painting and quickly inserted herself into the conversation. "Excuse me, but might you repeat that?"

"Of course, your Majesty. After four years of relative peace, a new Joker has assumed the role of pranking the lands. He has been described as a medium-tall, probably albino man of roughly 20 who has red eyes. He has been pranking the towns near the border of Hearts and Clubs; he recently has moved his attacks onto the town of Klubok."

"Klubok? As in my Klubok?"

"Yes, your Highness. He has been stealing livestock and apparently stealing money from the houses in those sectors and redistributing the coins throughout sectors 8 through 10. He seems to think himself a hero, stealing from innocent people in the rich sectors and giving the money to those residing in the poorest sectors. He is especially fond of sector 10. You will be pleased to note that he has not targeted your parent's home."

"Has he harmed anyone physically?" Roderich asked.

"There has only been one reported injury that occurred after he removed all the glass from the windows in a house in sector 3, which occurred after he allegedly threw a smoke bomb into one of the open windows. The man of the house stepped on the burning fuse in an attempt to prevent the bomb from exploding and scorched the bottom of his foot."

Elizaveta chocked in a laugh, and began coughing heartily after a pointed glare of disapproval from Roderich. She cleared her throat.

"So, I assume this man in highly elusive for you to have not caught him yet, minister? I cannot believe that there are many people in this world that have a description similar to the one that has been given." She knew that there couldn't be anyone else in the world that looked just like Gilbert; the odds were next to impossible. Perhaps this was where Gilbert had vanished to. The Joker was notorious for apprehending teenage boys from one of the poor sectors as their heirs, and sector ten was a favorite due to it being the bottom rung of society.

"Correct, your Majesty. He should be fairly simple to track down as he cannot blend in."

"And you plan on apprehending and then giving this man a trial?"

"Yes, your Highness."

"Allow me to make a proposal," she began slowly. Roderich looked at her intently as she constructed her next sentences in her head. "I know Klubok better than many people as I grew up there. I can easily tell you which estates in the high-ranked sectors could be targeted. I assure you that the Joker has developed a pattern of sorts that will be easy to identify upon further analysis. My proposal would be that we send in a small army troupe, posed as civilians visiting family in sector 2. As you have said my parent's house has not yet been targeted, they are surely coming up on his list. We shall post several of your men in the neighboring manors and as guards around the perimeter of the house. When he attempts a prank, we will easily be able to apprehend this Joker figure. He will never expect a woman living in a house in sector 2 to be his undoing."

The table sat silently and gazed at her green eyes that flashed with determination. Roderich sighed in his seat and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't agree with this, Elizaveta."

"You weren't supposed to, dear."

He shook his head in near disbelief and looked over to the still-standing defense minister. "I do not veto her proposal, if you believe it might work. She would be a valuable resource since she is the only person here from Klubok. Those of us who are born in Sector Ace tend not to leave since we are the capital. I assure you she will know the area a million times better than the men you shall select for the mission."

The defense minister paused briefly and then nodded solemnly, "we would be honored if you accompanied us, your Highness."

Elizaveta smiled at the group of people brightly. "Thank you gentlemen for your time." She stepped off her throne and made her way towards the doors to the meeting room.

She then turned around again, her satin dress swaying at her feet, the joyous smile still evident on her features. "We ride at dawn."

**Author's Notes:**

**FINALLY! Here is the first chapter of my cardverse PruHun story! This has been in the works for a long time and I finally finished the whole thing this afternoon. I'm going through now and doing final edits and making sure everything stays consistent, but I know this chapter won't have any changes so I decided to post it! ^^**

**I will admit I took a few creative liberties with this AU. As you can see, Ivan is not the King of Clubs. In fact, there is no Ivan at all. ^^" He just didn't fit in. But for the most part, everything else is the same as the cards say in way of rank. **

**I'll probably update about once a week. I get busy, so occasionally updates might be a little farther apart. But here you go, I hope you enjoyed it! Tell me what you thought! **


	2. Chapter 2

The light flooded in between her open curtains the next morning as soon as the sun rose on her side of the palace. She jumped out of bed as soon as the light reached her eyelids and dressed in an equestrian outfit: tight brown pants and brown riding boots, a white blouse, and a black blazer. She stuck a green hat down over her hair, and tucked her signature flowers into a small saddlebag instead of putting them in her hair in order to maintain her cover.

She proceeded out the doors of her chambers and down the back flight of stairs out onto the dewy green grass that surrounded the palace stables. Many army officers, including the minister of defense, were waiting for her at the stables. They bowed politely to her as she approached, and she smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Good morning, gentlemen," she greeted as she entered the stables to find her favorite riding horse, a strong black mare named Piroska. She petted the mare's muzzle affectionately before putting on the brown leather saddle and other riding equipment and jumping onto the horse's back. She trotted outside to join the military men, all dressed in civilian equestrian clothes.

"Let us go," she said, turning Piroska in the direction of Klubok and snapping the reins.

They galloped for hours across the rolling green hills of the Clubs kingdom, Sector Ace disappearing behind them in the distance. Streams ran through the valley in between large hills, and the horse path was beaten-down dirt surrounded by expanses of green. A dark forest loomed to the east, towards Hearts, which defined the border. No one ever dared go into the forest; it was said that evil spirits lived in the deepest depths among the trees. Elizaveta knew that the forest was primarily safe; she'd spent much time in a meadow several yards inside the trees with Gilbert everyday since she was six until she was sixteen and he was stolen. They had never ventured further inside than the glade, however, but she could not believe truly evil spirits would live in such a beautiful place as the forest.

The dark forest bordered the town of Klubok on its western and northern sides, and the riders followed the line of the forest until they could see the stone-walled city after they cleared a tall hill. Elizaveta stopped her mare for a second and examined the large city before taking a deep breath and plunging over the steep hillside at top speed like her companions.

They came upon the doors to the city soon after, the gates guarded by a soldier on either side dressed in green military outfits with swords strapped around their waists dangling on their left sides and a gun holsters on their right sides. The defense minister rode in front as the group trotted up on their horses to the locked gates. The guards stood tall as the minster stopped his horse and dismounted.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen. We are journeying from Sector Ace to Sector 2 of Klubok."

"Papers are required," the guard on the left explained. "I need to see everyone's papers before I can let you through."

"But of course," the minister said, producing a thick stack of papers sealed together with a wax seal of the king. "I believe you should find everything in order."

The guard popped the seal and examined each of the documents, occasionally raising his head to compare the pictures to those of the group in front of him. Finally, he nodded.

"You're clear." He pushed a lever down on his side of the gates, and the gates swung open, exposing a long pathway into the heart of Klubok.

"Thank you, and good day, gentlemen," the minister said before remounting. The troupe trotted inside the gates, which swung shut and locked tightly behind them. They rode down the stone-walled path to the center of the town. The walls were a good twelve feet high, and none of them could see over the walls.

The center of Klubok was a round plaza with a fountain in the center. Water bubbled out of a tall Clubs emblem and splashed into the pool below it. A marble column stood behind the club emblem, and on that column was the clock that chimed each sector's curfew. Twelve gates were evenly spaced around the plaza, and an armed guard stood alert at each gate. The first ten gates led to a sector, each of which was walled into a pie-slice shape to form the perfect circle of the city, and elegantly written numbers declared which number sector the gate led to. The next gate led to the factory sector, where many people from sectors 8, 9, and 10 found work; the final gate was guarded by two guards and led to the outside. The only way to get out was the have a pass from someone living in the rich sectors or to be from the rich sectors. That gate was one Elizaveta had passed through everyday of her childhood to journey to the meadow. She remembered that she had first seen Gilbert at that gate, his face dirty, tightly gripping the pass he'd earned from a man in Sector 4. She had waited for him on the other side of the gate, and the two of them had been best friends ever since.

The group of riders halted in front of the gate that had a scripted 2 written on the front door. The guard saluted them respectfully and glanced at their papers one final time before allowing the gates to swing open into the sector. Women dressed in the latest fashions walked slowly in groups, many gathered under delicate parasols, looking in the windows of boutiques and expensive, imported food shops. After they had cleared the shopping area of the sector, large manors began to line the streets, tall, wide buildings with dozens of black-trimmed windows and perfectly landscaped lawns. Elizaveta halted Piroska in front of a large, five-story white house with white pillars supporting the porch roof and a fenced patio area on top of the porch roof that was accessed by a door on the third floor. A medium-height wrought iron fence surrounded the perimeter of the property. She dismounted and looped Piroska's reins around a post in the iron fence before opening the gate and walking up to the front door of her parent's home.

She knocked once on the door and waited. A minute later, a thin, older woman with long black hair and amber eyes opened the door.

"Yes? Oh, heavens, Miss Elizaveta!"

"Nickolett!" Elizaveta exclaimed happily and pulled the woman into a tight hug.

"I didn't know you were coming, your Highness!"

"Please, Nickolett, Elizaveta is fine. You raised me, for God's sake."

"As you wish, miss. How is life in Sector Ace? I imagine it must be so different than it is here, especially in Sector 8!"

"Well, Sector Ace is…"

"Nickolett!" a shrill voice pierced through the air, making Elizaveta wince. "Who was at the door? Did you even answer it, you stupid eight? For the love of God…oh, Elizaveta. You did show up."

A woman emerged at the top of the stairs. She was heavily caked in makeup in an attempt to disguise her slight wrinkles and wore a pale green shift dress. "It's so wonderful that you're home, Elizaveta."

"Yes, yes, it is," Elizaveta muttered in reply and looked away from her mother, whose lips formed a tight line.

"Elizaveta Csenge Héderváry! Did they not instruct you to not mutter in the palace? You were raised better than that. And queens do not avoid eye contact whilst muttering, do you understand? Really, act your place, Elizaveta. You are not a child."

Elizaveta clenched a fist at her side and raised her green eyes to meet her mother's disapproving brown ones. "Sorry, Mother." Her voice was laden with distaste and sarcasm, but her mother ignored it.

"That's better, dear. Now, Nickolett, why on Earth are you just standing around there? Honestly, we pay you too much. Get to work on dinner, why don't you? Just don't make paprikash; you know Elizaveta hates it."

"Actually, Mother, paprikash is my favorite. I've liked it since I was little. Nickolett knows that."

"Oh," her mother sniffed. "Well, make something she likes, Nickolett. And bring us some tea in the sitting room."

"Yes, Madam Brigitta." Nickolett curtsied and left the room in the direction of the kitchen.

Brigitta approached Elizaveta and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Let me look at you, darling." Elizaveta put on a pleasant smile as her mother surveyed her. Brigitta's smile fell into a frown.

"Have you gained weight?"

"What?" Elizaveta looked at her mother in slight shock, her pleasant smile faltering.

"Have you gained weight? You look like it."

"No, I still weigh the same as I did when I left, Mother."

"Oh. Well, it must just be that dreadful outfit of yours. Who picks out your clothes?"

"I do."

"Oh, well, then it's a good thing you have ladies-in-waiting, isn't it, dear?"

"Yes, I suppose it is," she murmured as her mother patted her arm and motioned for Elizaveta to follow her into the sitting room.

"Erik, Elizaveta came home."

The man looked away from the paper and over the top of his reading glasses at Elizaveta and sized her up. "Why are you wearing pants?"

"We came on horseback, Father."

"Oh? They let the queen do that? Honestly, what sort of society is this? Don't you have a carriage? Some guard you have." He shook his head.

"I carry a weapon. I can defend myself."

"Ha! Very amusing, Elizaveta. Women are weak creatures and need to be defended. I'll have to send a letter to Alfonso up in Sector Ace and let him know you should not be carrying a weapon and need a more able guard."

Elizaveta clenched her fists tightly, her fingernails digging harshly into her skin. Her teeth clamped down on her tongue as she resisted the urge to scream at her father. It'd been three years, and her parents were still degrading bigots.

"Sit down, Elizaveta. You look like some blank-minded imbecile just standing there."

She obliged and sat down on the sofa across from where her parents were seated in chairs, her eyebrow twitching in anger. Nickolett came in with tea, set the tray down on the coffee table, curtsied, and exited. Elizaveta reached forward to grab a teacup and sipped her tea calmly, wondering why coming to see her parents had seemed like a good idea at all.

"Have you proposed any tax decreases for Sectors 2 through 4, Elizaveta?"

"No."

"And why not?"

"Because you can pay your taxes, while many people in the lower sectors can't even eat every night."

Erik scoffed and shook his head. "You stupid little girl. Liberalism is not popular over here, and you obviously have no idea how the system works."

"I disagree, Father. I am the Queen, and I have learned a great deal about politics during my time in Sector Ace and believe I understand them."

Her father scoffed again and rolled his eyes. "If you actually believe that, you're going to be a terrible Queen."

_Get through this, Lizzie. It's just a way to get to Gilbert, _she thought.

"So, Elizaveta, do you plan on producing a Jack?"

Elizaveta spit her tea back into the cup. "What?"

"Elizaveta, that was most unladylike. We do not spit. I simply asked you when you plan on having the heir to the throne. You're getting old."

"I'm 20!" she cried in disbelief. Her mother shrugged.

"When I was twenty, you were already two years old. You really ought to think about hurrying up and having a child."

"I don't want a child right now," Elizaveta said, setting her teacup down on the table. "I have plenty of time, and I'll make that decision on my own when the time comes."

Brigitta shook her head at Erik, who folded his newspaper and set it on the table. "Elizaveta, people will suspect your marriage is unhappy if you fail to produce an heir soon. You've been married for three years!"

"You forced me to marry Roderich! This marriage was not my choice, and you practically sold me! You do not control my life, and I'll decide on when I want to have a child, if I want to have a child, and what policies I want to push during my reign. I am the Queen of Clubs, and I will not stand to be manipulated, do you hear me?"

Erik's face turned bright red as he stood, raising his hand as if to slap her.

"If you touch me, I can tell any one of the military officers stationed in this neighborhood, and they will apprehend and execute you for assault on the queen. So I would put my hand down if I were you."

Her father lowered his hand, his face still boiling red with fury. Elizaveta smirked and stood up.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd rather have dinner alone in my room that see your faces again while I eat. You already make me sick enough when I have an empty stomach." She turned on her heel and headed off for the staircase, ascending to the second floor to retreat into her bedroom.

She flopped down on her bed after she shut and locked her door behind her. She stared at her painted ceiling. When she was little, Nickolett's husband had painted a brilliant fairytale mural on her ceiling, a knight and princess running hand-in-hand while dragons poked out from caves, faeries flitted across the skies, and a king and queen watched the kingdom from a peaceful tower of a white castle. The princess had green eyes, whilst the knight had blue.

"His eyes should be red," she murmured and sighed. She pulled the chain out from under her blouse, holding the silver band up and staring at it again, rolling it around between her fingers.

It was a simple band, but she loved it. Gilbert had made it himself with help from a metal smith in his sector, and he'd made a matching one for himself. He'd proposed in the meadow when they were sixteen, and she said yes; they'd planned the run away together to a place where it didn't matter if they had different sector numbers, far away from Elizaveta's controlling parents. She wouldn't have minded if they'd ended up nomads, wandering the country, and she didn't mind if her sector number had to change when they went to a new town. She only cared that they could be together without hiding it for once.

She held the ring up next to her wedding band clad finger. They looked nothing alike, one simple, one elegant, one dulled with time, one still sparkling brightly. She removed the gold, jeweled band and set it aside, slipping the plain silver band onto her finger in its place. She felt better in the ring, like it actually belonged on her finger. Eventually she shook her head and removed the silver ring, stringing it back on its chain, and put the golden band back on. She'd wear the silver ring again someday if it killed her.

**Author's Notes:**

**Err...my formatting got a little screwed up on the way over, so HOPEFULLY it doesn't appear weird on your screen =/ I think I fixed it all.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter 2! ^^ I hope you all liked it. I know this didn't have a ton of plot progression, but I promise the next chapter will make up for it! Please tell me what you think; I didn't get a ton of feedback last time and I really would like to know what you like and don't like about the story so I can take into consideration during editing and for future fanfictions!**


	3. Chapter 3

She opened her eyes and saw moonlight was filtering in through her open windows, illuminating the ceiling just enough that she could still make out the fairytale scene. She must have fallen asleep. The ring was cool against her chest. She stared at it as she rolled the ring around between her fingers and tugged gently on the chain. She sighed and rolled over, pressing her face into the duvet.

"Be nice if reality were that simple and perfect," she muttered to herself in frustration. If only her life had turned out that way, with her parents approving of Gilbert, and the two of them running off hand in hand to happily-ever-after-the-end.

_Thump!_ Elizaveta jumped in surprise and sat up, and then stayed as still as she could and listened carefully. Quiet movements were coming from downstairs, and what sounded like it could be hushed cursing.

She crept off her bed, thankful for floorboards that didn't squeak, and tiptoed over to her door, silently opening it. She walked to the stairs and peeked around the corner of the wall to look down the stairwell just in time to see a dark figure sprint soundlessly across the floor.

She whipped out of view and pressed her back firmly against the wall, her heart pounding violently on the inside of her ribcage. The Joker was here. She moved quickly and quietly back into her room, leaned out her open window, and signaled the guards stationed below that they were under attack.

They ran around toward the front of the house, while Elizaveta snatched a revolver out from her desk drawer and slinked out of her bedroom. She tiptoed down the stairs, her hands shaking slightly. Was the Joker really Gilbert? It had to be Gilbert.

She leaped off the last step and landed quietly and smoothly on the wood floors of the downstairs and snuck toward the study, where the safe filled with their gold was kept. A faint red light glowed from the doorway. She peered around the edge of the frame to watch.

A man with platinum hair was standing with his back to her, wearing black pants and a shirt with red runes on the back. From his hands came the faint red light, the rumored magic skills possessed by the Joker. Not many people in any of the Kingdoms had magic of any sort; Spades was rather abundant with magic, but Clubs had no one except the Joker who could cast any sort of spell, and even his abilities were limited. She watched the gold coins rise from the safe and place themselves into a bag, each coin being replaced by a pebble in the safe.

She decided to step into the room. The man whipped around, shock evident on his pale face, his ruby eyes wide. She looked at him before smiling fondly.

"Caught you, Gil."

"Lizzie?" he whispered in disbelief. She nodded, pulling the chain out from under her collar and showing him the ring.

"I still never take it off."

He tried to smile, but he was still in shock, staring at the gun in her hand. "Shit, Lizzie, let me explain – "

The front door burst open then, and soldiers flooded the downstairs floor. Elizaveta pointed the gun at Gilbert, who raised his hands in surrender, but gestured to his left hand, whose ring finger held a silver band to match hers.

"I never took mine off, either."

Seven soldiers rushed into the study, forcing Gilbert to the ground and handcuffing him.

"We'll continue our little talk from your prison cell, Joker," she said with a smirk, but gave him a knowing wink. The soldiers hauled him out of the room, and Elizaveta called after them, "Make sure to put him in Cell 27. It's sound and magic proof, and I don't want any funny business from him." She gripped the silver band as it dangled off its chain, smiling slightly to herself.

Half of the soldiers they had brought with them left right then, surrounding on horseback a borrowed prison carriage from Klubok to deliver the Joker to his cell as soon as possible, and a messenger rode off alone ahead of them bearing the message of the Joker's capture to the King. Elizaveta stayed awake, alone in the silent house, until the sun rose the following morning. She took some leftover food from the fridge and left a note for Nickolett, wishing her four children a good year and thanking her for everything she did. She left no note for her parents and did not tell them she was leaving.

Piroska was tied up in the stable, and she quickly saddled her, meeting up with the remainder of the troupe next to the gates that led out of Sector 2. After everyone had gathered, they galloped out of the city and across the plains towards Sector Ace. When they arrived at the city, the citizens had already learned about the capture of the Joker. People lined the streets, cheering on their Queen and soldiers for saving Clubs. Elizaveta smiled and waved at the people as she was supposed to, but her stomach sank and her heart cried because she knew that she was going to betray everyone in the streets today.

She handed off Piroska to a stable hand soon after entering the castle gates, and dashed off towards her chambers. She stripped off her equestrian riding outfit and slipped into a green dress, combing her hair and threading the pink flowers throughout. She examined herself in the mirror for a moment, tucked the chain in under the bodice of her dress, and grabbed the case file that had been placed on her desk. She took a deep breath and opened the door, proceeding down the hallway towards the cellblocks.

The maximum-security cells were stationed in the Eastern Tower, a high column under constant heavy guard and fitted with sound and magic proof cells in order to isolate the criminals as much as possible. No one had ever successfully broken out of a maximum-security cell before. In fact, it had been at least twenty years since anyone had even bothered to attempt it. She was going to break that trend.

The guards at the base of the tower let her in with deep, sweeping bows and she nodded respectfully to them. She entered the tower, shutting the door behind her, hiked up her skirts, and began to climb the twisting staircase up to the 9th floor, which held Cell 27, the cell she had ordered for Gilbert. It was probably the nicest cell, not to mention she knew they could talk freely in the completely sound-locked space.

When she finally pushed open the door to the ninth floor, the white door directly across the hallway was labeled 27 and had two guards stationed on either side of the door.

"Your Highness," they said and bowed.

"Have you come for the Joker?" one guard asked.

"Yes, I have been put in charge of his case. May I enter?"

"Of course, your Highness. Allow me." The guard lifted a panel next to the door and moved some levers about. Elizaveta watched intently, memorizing the pattern in case she would need it in the future. The door slid open and the guard shut the control panel, and Elizaveta walked into the cell, the door sliding shut and locking behind her.

There he sat, hands folded on the table, looking at the right wall, not meeting her eyes. He was pale, and still so thin. He had purplish bags under his red eyes, and his platinum hair was flat. His clothing was disheveled as if he had been in a fight, which, she realized, he probably had at some point during his transit here. She set down her case file and pulled a key from the hidden pocket in the skirt of her dress and unlocked the handcuffs clamped around his wrists.

"We can talk freely in here, the place is completely soundproof." He didn't acknowledge her and stared at the floor.

"Gil?" she asked. He tensed in his seat and shifted away from her. She leaned closer to him and grabbed his folded hands in her own. He didn't look at her, just kept staring intently down at the floor of the cell. She leaned forward, about to press a kiss to his cheek, when he finally spoke.

"Don't," he rasped, moving his face away from her. "Stop, Elizaveta."

"What's wrong?" Her brow furrowed as she tried to make him look her in the eye. "Look at me, Gilbert. What's wrong?"

"You're fuckin' married, Elizaveta, that's what's wrong. Hell, you're married to the King! You're the goddamn Queen!"

"Yes, I…didn't you know that?"

Gilbert stood up angrily and his chair clattered onto the floor. Elizaveta took a defensive step away from him as he ranted.

"Shit, Elizaveta! We don't get newspapers where I've been the past four years. God damn it, I waited for you! I thought you'd still be around when I got back because you loved me. I attacked Klubok so that word would get out that the Joker was an albino and that you'd notice me. I've gone to our meadow every goddamn day for the past two months hoping you'd realize it was me and that I was still alive. But apparently you've been fucking some aristocrat up in the castle this whole time!"

Elizaveta stared at him in shock, anger bubbling up inside her chest. She glared and crossed her arms. "What, you think I'm some whore, Gilbert?"

"Well, you married another man when you were engaged to me! How long did you even wait before you ran off to him anyway, _your Highness_?"

"Fuck you, Gilbert!" she screeched, her voice shooting up an octave and making him wince. "I didn't even know I was fucking getting married until the day before the wedding! I tried to run, I jumped out of a goddamn window, but they caught me stealing a horse from the stable. The windows in my chamber don't even open because they were afraid I'd try to run again, and I'm on the thirteenth floor so it'd be suicide to break the window and jump. I tried to get out and find you, Gil, but I couldn't. I was under lock and key. They had guards posted around me acting as part of the wedding party so I wouldn't run. My father sold me! He struck a deal with the last king for a nomination to parliament, but the old king died before it could happen, and I'm fucking stuck here! And I'll have you know I'm not fucking Roderich! Shit, Gil, I don't love him. He doesn't love me. I go to his chambers every now and then to avoid gossip, but we've never had sex and I wasn't planning on that happening, ever. We just talk about government affairs and occasionally novels, for fuck's sake! The only time we've ever kissed was on our wedding day. We don't have feelings for each other, Gilbert! The only person I've felt that way about is you, and I've worn your ring every single day since you gave it to me. So don't make me out like I'm some fucking slut that wanted this to happen!" She turned away from him, her eyes burning hot with building up tears that threatened to pour down her cheeks. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, biting her shaking lip and sniffling every so often as she worked hard not to break down in tears.

She heard Gilbert take a few steps toward her, but neither of them did anything to break the loaded silence until Gilbert slipped his arms around her waist from behind and pushed his face into her neck. She could feel that he was fighting back tears as well as a few rogue drops slipped out of his eyes and landed on her neck.

"I'm sorry, _mein liebe_," he whispered. "I didn't…I just…"

She leaned back against him and reached up to intertwine her fingers with his. He gently turned her around and dried the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs before kissing her softly on the lips. She smiled softly at him and cleared the tears on his cheeks before wrapping her arms around him tightly and burying her face in his chest.

"I'm sorry too, love. I missed you."

"And I missed you," he said, resting his chin on the top of her head.

They stood like that for several long moments until Elizaveta finally pulled away. "Here, sit down. I need to talk to you about what's going on."

Gilbert picked up his chair and sat down. Elizaveta pulled out the chair across the table from him and took a seat. She opened the file and spread about the papers before she cleared her throat and began her explanation.

"You're being held in maximum security right now because you're considered highly dangerous. Only select people can see you, and the only person of those who is actually going to see you is the person that is handling your case, which Roderich has approved to be me. I can see you whenever. The files in here say your trial has already been set for a week from today; it's probably happening so fast because they aren't offering you much of a defense, and they're going to go for an execution order to cut off the magic flow through the Joker line," she paused and licked her lips, "but you don't need to be concerned with that, because I'm busting you out of here. If…if you still want to, we can run away. And this time we'll make it."

He reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "Of course I still want to. I was going to ask you if you didn't bring it up first. I know exactly where we can go; I have to say it's pretty awesome." He flashed a toothy grin at her, and she couldn't help but smile widely back.

"I memorized the code to get into your cell, and the only guards on this floor are yours since the rest of the cells are unoccupied. The plan is simple: The night before your trial, I'll take out the guards, get you out of the cell, and we'll run like hell to the stables, and I'll already have a couple horses ready for us. After that, we just have the horses take us to where you want to go."

"Awesome. You'll love it there, Lizzie, I just know it."

"As sappy as it is, I love wherever I am with you. Now, I need to go; I've been here a long time and we can't arouse suspicion." She picked up the handcuffs and clamped them down over his wrists, apologizing as she did so. She kissed him quickly, gathered her papers, and turned to leave.

"Hey, Lizzie?"

"Yes?"

"_Ich liebe dich_."

She smiled brightly at him. "_Szeretlek_, Gilbert."

She pressed the button on the inside of the cell to be let out, and the door slid open for her.

"Thank you, gentlemen. Keep up the good work." She exited the prison tower and went back to her chambers, looking forward to the day they would run away together that had been four years in the making.

**Author's Notes:** Again with the strange formatting...hopefully it's all fixed up now. I didn't have a lot of time to do editing because I was so busy, and I'm completely burnt out and exhausted right now. On the plus side, I submitted my application. Who knows if I'll get in, but at least I applied. Anyway, give me some feedback! I got a lot more reviews last time, so thank you to all that reviewed! I'd love to hear from you all again about what you think! Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

"Your Highness, you need to get up. You have a press conference in an hour."

"Well, then I can sleep for another 50 minutes. Goodbye."

"You have to look presentable. Get up."

"Are you ordering me?"

"Yes, I am, Your Highness. Get up."

Elizaveta groaned and rolled over, pressing her face into her pillow. "But I'm tired!"

"Stop whining, Your Highness. Angelique is going to be here in a minute to help you get dressed."

Elizaveta sighed and rolled over, cracking one eye upon to look at the blonde woman holding a clipboard standing next to her bed. "Fine, Monica. I'll get up."

"Good! I'll meet you here in 45 minutes, all right? And don't fall asleep again!"

"I won't, I won't," Elizaveta muttered sleepily as Monica exited the door. She rose up from her bed and stretched. She didn't remember having a press conference scheduled, and she hadn't been prepped for anything. Monica was her publicist and usually told her these things, in addition to making her review and practice for hours the day before. What could they want to talk to her about?

"Oh well," she said to her reflection in the mirror as she brushed the morning tangles out of her brown hair, "I'll just wing it."

A knock tapped on her door. "May I come in, my lady?"

"Of course, Angelique."

Angelique entered and gave her a quick curtsy before making her way over to Elizaveta's closet and rifling through the various garments. She selected a simple, knee-length green dress with a black band around the waist. Elizaveta slipped it on quickly, and threaded her pink flowers into her hair. Angelique found her Queen's necklace and clasped it on for her, then set about doing Elizaveta's makeup for her as Elizaveta ate a piece of toast. Monica knocked on the door exactly when she had said she would, and hurried Elizaveta off towards the press room, explaining the situation as they went.

"Now, listen. The defense minister has already given his statement about the capture of the Joker. You're now available for any questions that the press has. We'll only let them question you for a little while, so don't worry. Just answer as best you can. You've got this." Monica smoothed down Elizaveta's skirt and adjusted her hair quickly. "All right, go out on stage."

She took a deep breath and plastered on her most brilliant and bright smile, waving pleasantly at the crowd of reporters and photographers as she walked up to the podium. A dozen hands all shot up in the air immediately, and she began selecting randomly.

"Where is the Joker being held?"

"He is being held in a secure location that I cannot disclose. Rest assured he is no longer a threat to the kingdoms."

Elizaveta's heart pounded in her chest. Gilbert was the last topic she wanted to answer questions about. She'd rather talk about her parents, for God's sake. She worked hard to answer diplomatically, keeping her voice as even as possible to avoid appearing to have emotional connections.

"How hard was it to capture the Joker?"

"Not incredibly hard; we simply ambushed him whilst he was attempting to prank a house. He was apprehended without much of an altercation."

"Was he really as cunning and sneaky as he was made out to be?"

"We are lucky we caught him while he is still inexperienced, as he had not yet fully developed those skills. I have no doubt the capture would have been much more trying had we not acted as swiftly as we did and with such a strong team."

"What was your strategy?"

"Simply to capture the Joker with minimal injuries and damages. As I said, we ambushed him during a prank. He was not suspecting the ambush in the slightest."

"What results are you aiming for in this trial?"

"I imagine that the prosecution is aiming for a result that will prevent the Joker from committing further injustices, but I have not spoken with either legal team as of yet."

Reporters asked more and more questions about Gilbert, trying to get her to reveal any juicy details. She clenched one hand on the podium out of view of the reporters and tried to focus on the task at hand, but each time the Joker came up she'd think of Gilbert and how they'd run away, and her diplomacy would be thrown off course.

"Final question," she declared eventually after she had talked about Gilbert for longer than she wanted to. "Yes, you there."

"Your Highness, recently a rumor has been floating around about the prospect of a Jack having been conceived. Would you like the address this rumor?"

Elizaveta saw Monica move to rush onstage and usher her offstage, but Elizaveta held up her hand to stop her. "The rumor is false. Roderich and I will make the decision to have children mutually, and if a Jack is conceived we will release a statement. Anything not coming directly from the palace should be disregarded. No further questions, please. Thank you." She walked off the stage, her black heels clicking as the reporters rose from their seats and began to be ushered out by the palace guards. Monica caught up with Elizaveta behind the stage.

"You did wonderfully, miss! You handled everything beautifully, especially that last question. I was worried."

"Not addressing things arouses more suspicion," Elizaveta replied. She had a headache from the conference and the stress. Public speaking usually wasn't a problem, but the entire time she was on stage Gilbert had swirled through her head and messed with her focus. She pondered whether she could come up with a feasible excuse to go see Gilbert in his cell.

"Elizaveta?" a voice asked. She turned around and saw Roderich standing there, wearing khaki pants, a green vest with a club emblem, his long green coat, and signature cravat. He was holding papers as if he had just come from a meeting. "Might you accompany me to my office? I'd like to discuss something with you."

"Of course," she replied and bid Monica goodbye, and followed him off in the direction of his office. They walked side by side, a decent width apart. Their shoulders never bumped, their hands never brushed. They were simply walking, and there was nothing there.

Roderich held open the door to his office for her, and she thanked him politely. He set down his papers and sat down at his desk chair.

"Please sit," he said, and she took a seat in one of the green chairs situated across from his large wooden desk. He adjusted his glasses awkwardly and paused for a long time, starting at his hands.

"What was it you wanted to discuss?" she finally inquired.

"Ah, yes, I…well, you see…do you want children, Elizaveta?"

Her heart stopped beating for a second from the shock and the blood ran out of her face. "What? I…what on Earth prompted this, Roderich?"

"Your parents notified me of their distress over the lack of a Jack…and the question from the reporter today shows that the public is concerned as well. I did not know if you were interested in the prospect or not and thought that due to the concern lately perhaps it should be considered."

Elizaveta stared at him, her mouth slightly agape. He was treating asking her to have his child like it was a business transaction. She blinked a few times, still in shock from the proposition, and closed her mouth, sinking back in her chair. She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"Well…Roderich…I…look, Roderich, you know as well as I do that this was a political marriage. We barely knew each other when we got married…and I'm afraid I don't love you romantically. I consider you a friend, but not a lover. I don't particularly want to have kids, especially not when I'm only 20, and if I were to have them, I'd have to love my partner first. I'm sorry, I just…"

"It's perfectly fine, Elizaveta," Roderich replied, pushing up his glasses slightly and smiling calmly, as if he had simply been unable to strike a deal to sell someone a product instead of being rejected by his wife. "I understand. This was indeed a political marriage. Perhaps when we know each other better. Ah, speaking of which, my advisors have gone into recess as of today, and there are no nobles visiting. Would you like to dine with me? It would be just us."

Elizaveta chewed on her bottom lip as she considered the offer.

"Are you…courting me, Roderich?"

"No, Elizaveta, I'm not. I'm asking a friend to dinner; I don't regard you romantically either, fear not."

"Ah, well, in that case…why not."

"Fantastic. I'll see you at seven, then?" He shuffled papers around on his desk and picked a few up to examine them closely.

"Yes, seven," she replied, nodding to him as she left.

She went back to her chambers to relax for a while. She'd been woken up at eleven, and it was nearing two now. She selected a book from the shelf she kept in her room, and flopped down on her bed to engross herself in the tale. It was the kind of book she still loved, a fairytale with the knight and the princess and the fights and the savings. She only wished that the princess wasn't always so weak and could smack someone around herself instead of just screaming in distress all the time.

Angelique came in with her laundry when she was nearing the end of the tale.

"Thank you, Angelique," she said as Angelique hung up each garment in the wardrobe.

"Of course, my lady. Will you be needing food in your chamber this evening?"

"No, I'm eating with Roderich. I should probably actually dress soon."

"I'll tell the chef. Would you like help?"

"No, I…I'll do it myself, thank you."

"Of course, my lady," Angelique curtsied and excused herself from the chamber.

She examined the clothes Angelique had just brought in and finally selected a green long-sleeved, knee-length chiffon dress that flowed breezily. She sat down at her vanity table and began to brush her long hair until it was shiny and smooth, and then placed her pink flowers back in her hair. She clasped on a black and silver necklace and picked up her cosmetics bag and began dabbing makeup on her face. When she finished, she stared at herself in the mirror and felt nauseous.

She looked pretty, perhaps even beautiful by some standards. But she looked fake, like a portrait instead of a person. She usually wore the tiniest hint of makeup, but she'd done it up in an attempt to dress up and she felt like a doll on a shelf. Her green eyes stared harshly back at her in the mirror and she averted her eyes quickly, standing up to turn away from the reflection. The chain around her neck that held the silver engagement ring felt like it weighed a million pounds and she was suddenly hyperaware of the small metal band. The pink flowers in her hair that usually made her feel positive felt like lead gripping tightly onto her skull. She gulped and shook her head, desperately trying to clear the nauseous and nagging feeling she felt as she reached for the door handle to go to dinner with her friend.

**Author's Notes: Hello! =D I'm updating a bit early because I have a speech meet Saturday and a paper to write Sunday. So viola, chapter 4!**

**Little bit of a cliffhanger, hopefully not too bad of one, though. XD What did you think of the chapter? Of Roderich and Elizaveta? Let me know - reviews make me the happiest! =)**


	5. Chapter 5

She proceeded down the hallway, which was dimly illuminated by the setting sun casting light through the windows. The dining hall was only three corridors away, but her feet felt more and more heavy as she made her way across the palace, and the dull throbbing in her head turned to repeated stabbings in her brain. Her stomach churned angrily with each step. She paused in front of the doors, her hands on the handles to steady herself, and closed her eyes. She took a couple of deep breaths, and her sudden illness appeared to ease slightly. She opened her eyes and glared at the doors with determination. She opened them and walked into the small dining hall, meant for dinner with only the royal family and no other nobles.

Roderich was already seated, and raised his head to look at her when she entered.

"Ah, good evening, Elizaveta."

The table was long by most standards, but could only seat 12 people compared to the hundreds that could be seated in the Grand Dining Hall. Two places were set, the one Roderich was seated at, and the one across from it. She smiled pleasantly at him and walked over towards her place.

"Good evening, Roderich. How are you this evening?"

"I am well, how are you?"

"Fine," she replied and took her seat.

"You spoke well at the press conference."

"Oh, thank you. I had no preparation so I was improvising it."

"You handled it very well."

A servant dressed in white and green came out with two plates of food, bowing as he placed them in front of the two. They thanked him politely and he bowed again respectfully and exited the room. Another servant entered a poured them each a glass of wine before exiting.

In front of them was a traditional paprikash served over egg noodles, something that was almost never served in the palace because it was considered to be unrefined.

"Someone mentioned you liked it, so I asked the chef if he knew how to make it."

"Oh, thank you, Roderich. It's my favorite."

"I hope you will enjoy it."

Elizaveta picked up her silver fork and gathered a bite. She put the food into her mouth and chewed, but the usually brilliant flavors that she loved tasted sour and bitter to her. She swallowed the food and smiled. She sipped the wine, and even the sweet beverage turned vile in her mouth. Her stomach churned again, and she resorted to attempting to choke down food and pushing it around her plate. They ate in silence, and Elizaveta thought about Gilbert: what on Earth where they feeding him in his cell? She knew he liked paprikash, because he was always excited when she'd brought some to the meadow. She wished he could be sitting where Roderich was, and that she could share this food with him.

Roderich began to talk to her about his meeting with the court musician earlier that day, and she tried her hardest to listen. She knew Roderich loved the piano, but she had never been able to play an instrument in her life and had failed all her childhood music lessons, so she didn't understand a single word he was saying. She nodded and smiled, offering encouragement at the most appropriate times, feigning fascination and understanding. She had long ago stopped asking questions; he tended to look at her bewildered by her lack od education for a long moment before launching into a complicated explanation that simply confused her further and made her feel stupid.

Her stomach reeled and her head throbbed. She was acting so goddamn fake. Who had she become? She hated dresses, but it was all she wore. She hated sitting inside all day and listening to political debates, but that's all she ever had time to do. She hated putting hours of effort into her appearance, but she had to because she was required to. She used to always speak her mind, and now she could only do that in rare occurrences in political meetings without worrying about causing an international incident. Hell, the only time she'd expressed an opinion recently was when she proposed to catch Gilbert!

Gilbert. She was never fake with Gilbert. She had always expressed her opinion, and he'd respected it and listened. Politicians and even Roderich, sometimes, disregarded her opinion and refused to listen. She had been trained to bite her tongue. She was treated like a delicate flower that would break, but she had jumped from the third story of the castle in an attempt to escape her wedding and remain unscathed. Gilbert knew that; he'd never go easy on her in a physical tussle when they were younger, and he always knew she could handle herself. He didn't care if she put hours into her appearance or showed up without brushing her hair. He didn't care if she wore grimy pants or the latest fashions. He always liked her, not her appearance; she had been selected for Roderich based on her physical appearance, social stature, and potential for public appeal. No one here cared to actually understand her, and they only cared about her façade. While she had spent nights talking with Roderich, he didn't even know the basics of her personality; the things Gilbert figured out within ten minutes of speaking with her.

"Roderich," she cut in. He stopped talking and looked at her. "I'm not feeling well…I'm sorry, but I really think I should go back to my room."

"Oh, of course, Elizaveta! I'm sorry you are not well. Would you like me to escort you?"

"No!" she said quickly. "I mean, ah, no, thank you. I'll be fine on my own."

"If you insist," he replied. "Good night, Elizaveta. Feel better."

"Thank you, Roderich. Farewell." She walked calmly to the door, exited, and shut the doors behind her. She paused for a silent moment before she ripped off her high heels and took off sprinting towards her chambers. She clattered in her doors and slammed them behind her, running for her washroom. She stared at herself in the mirror for a long moment, panting heavily before she clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip and let out muffled scream. Her high heels were still in her hand, and she smashed one right between her reflection's eyes and swore loudly at the fragmented woman in the mirror. She thought she saw the cracked reflection smirk at her.

She left the washroom, her other shoe still in her hand. The vanity was next to her, and she glanced at it, catching her reflection in the mirror. There she was. The goddamn perfect little queen. She flung the shoe at the vanity mirror, and the glass shattered, spewing across the floor. The cosmetics lay among the shards, and she picked them up, one by one hurling them at the wall. She broke a lamp with a particularly aggressive throw of mascara, and various powders and gels littered the walls where their containers had broken. She didn't realize she was crying until mascara-blackened tears dripped onto her hands.

She turned on all the faucets in the bathroom, cleansing the makeup from her face as she cried, trying to gasp in breaths between the tears and the forceful splashes of icy water she kept sending at her face. She had to get rid of that woman she was pretending to be.

She eventually collapsed on the bathroom floor, sobbing her eyes out. Was she sad, or was she relieved? She couldn't even tell anymore. Exhausted, she fell asleep on the stone floor, letting all the faucets keep running full blast.

She woke up with a groggy headache, the water still pouring full blast into the bathtub and sink. She staggered to her feet and turned off the water, laying her head against the cool wall for a second. After taking a calming breath, she glanced out into her room at the glass shards littered across the floor, the walls stained with makeup, and down at her dress that was spotted from her dripping makeup.

This place was making her crazy. She shook her head and laughed to herself in slight shock at the destruction she'd left in her wake. She was losing it. How long would it be before the façade she put up either consumed Elizaveta entirely, or she destroyed herself in an attempt to kill the façade as she had last night? She couldn't stand another second in this place; it wasn't healthy for her or anyone else. And Gilbert…who knows what was going on in the prison tower? He was locked in a room by himself. That's not healthy either. They were always at their most real and their best together. The clock tower in the distance chimed midnight and shook her from her musing into action.

She ran to her closet, carefully avoiding the shattered glass, and quickly changed into her only outfit that she had ever picked out for herself: her equestrian outfit. She'd left some food on her breakfast tray that morning, and she stuffed the rolls and piece of fruit into a leather satchel she had in her room. She removed her wedding ring and sat it down next to her hairbrush on her vanity, and took the silver ring off its chain and slipped it onto her finger. It felt light whilst her wedding band was heavy with all its gemstones, and her finger didn't feel tired from wearing it. It fit her finger perfectly; it didn't pinch the way the gold band always had.

She put the bag over her shoulder and made her way towards the Eastern tower. They were leaving immediately.

A guard walked across the hallway in front of her and she pressed herself against a wall to avoid his watch. She sprinted light-footedly across the area after he disappeared from view, and managed to avoid all the guards until she reached the tower. No guards were posted at the base of the tower this time around; apparently the night guard was not as secure. She hesitated at the lever system, knowing full well using her all-access Queen code would show up on the records.

"Fucking hell, I don't give a shit," she swore and wrenched the levers in her pattern. The lock clicked on the door, and she opened it and began to climb to Gilbert's floor. Upon opening the door to the ninth floor, she found both of his guards asleep on the floor outside his cell.

"You'd think they'd be more attentive when guarding a high-profile criminal," she thought to herself with an amused snort, tiptoeing toward the lever system and using the code she memorized to unlock the cell door.

Gilbert raised his head as the door slid open, his eyes bloodshot and the purple bags under his eyes more prominent than when she last saw him, his face slightly gaunt. He perked up when he saw her enter the cell.

"Lizzie!" he whispered and grinned. "What brings you to my humble abode?"

She pressed her lips against his firmly. "I'm breaking you out of here, now. I can't stand another second and I don't know what they've been doing to you up here, but I don't want anymore of it going on." She took out the key to unlock his handcuffs from her leather satchel and removed them from his wrists.

"Anyone ever told you you're pretty damn awesome, Lizzie?"

"I don't need to be told, I already know." She winked at him and grabbed his hand. "Come on, we need to be quick." She pulled on his hand and led him out of the cell. A guard stirred as she stepped outside the cell, and they froze. Gilbert muttered something under his breath, his hand glowing red, and both guards slumped over further. One began to snore loudly.

"Sleeping charm," he shrugged as Elizaveta looked at him in surprise.

"Anyone ever told you that you're pretty awesome, Gil?"

"I don't need to be told, I already know." They laughed and began to move quickly, out the door and down the flights of stairs, using Elizaveta's code to get out of the prison tower without tripping any alarms. They ran off for the exit to the stables, which were only a couple sparsely guarded corridors away. The only palace guard they came across was easily stunned by a quick spell of Gilbert's, and fell unconscious on the ground, and Gilbert assured Elizaveta that he wouldn't be waking up for a few hours.

The stables were just beyond a pasture, which they hurried across. They let go of the other's hand when they entered the closest stable and each took a couple deep breaths. A horse neighed quietly at Elizaveta, who looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Piroska, girl," she said as she petted the horse's black muzzle.

"Your horse?" Gilbert asked, sticking his hand out to the horse before stroking Piroska's mane.

"Yeah, she's my girl," Elizaveta said fondly. "But we can't take her. If we take her, they'll know who broke you out sooner and it'll cause a more hurried attempt to search. We'll take Senka; she's black as well and will hopefully provide good night cover. She's a fast runner." Elizaveta moved over to Senka's stall and petted her muzzle. "Hey, can you grab two black riding cloaks? We need as much concealment as possible. They should be hanging on the wall over there. Get some rope while you're at it, that always ends up coming in handy."

Gilbert nodded and went to fetch the cloaks while Elizaveta took Senka out of her stall and put on her riding equipment. After she had finished, Gilbert came back wearing one black cloak and handing her the other, which she swung on. They pulled up their hoods to hide their faces and Elizaveta jumped onto Senka, and Gilbert hopped on behind her. Elizaveta flicked the reins and Senka sprung forward, running out of the stables. As they approached the gate to the outside of the palace grounds, Gilbert flung it open with a red magic spell, and they galloped off into the city.

"We need to move fast," she explained over the clopping of hooves, "The gate guard changes at nine, and we have the cover of night, but we need to get there when there aren't any guards watching." Gilbert nodded as Elizaveta directed Senka through the back streets, avoiding prying eyes. Finally, they could see the unguarded gate, and Elizaveta slowed Senka to a walk as the approached the gates. Gilbert placed his hands on her waist to steady her as she leaned precariously toward the lever system. She flipped them in the order of her code, and the gates creaked open. She sat back up and Gilbert snatched the reigns, spurring Senka off into the night.

Gilbert directed Senka toward the Dark Forest at top speed for about an hour, sending them flying across hills and valley until they could begin to make out the outline of the forest and Sector Ace was far behind them. He slowed Senka to a walk, and they kept moving towards the looming trees.

His knee knocked gently against the back of hers, and she leaned back slightly against his chest as it rose and fell evenly. He quickly pressed a kiss to her temple before he focused on the upcoming trees again, murmuring under his breath another string of words that caused a dim light to appear in front of them as they entered the expanse of trees.

Gilbert navigated expertly through the forest, avoiding each tree despite how densely packed they were. They rode on the horse for hours, listening to the twigs snap underneath Senka's hooves. Elizaveta yawned, falling back against Gilbert's warm chest, her eyes drifting closed. Gilbert shifted a small bit to make her more comfortable, but kept riding on until his own eyelids began to droop. He found a large tree and halted Senka next to it.

"Hey, Lizzie, wake up." He shook her gently. "Here, we're both exhausted. Let's stop for the night. We can ride more in the morning."

She nodded sleepily and sat up to allow Gilbert to jump down. He picked Elizaveta up off the horse bridal style and carried her to the base of the large tree, carefully laying her down on the ground. He went back to Senka and led her to a nearby tree, tying her to the tree with the rope he'd taken from the stables. He patted her flank and then returned to Elizaveta, who was half-asleep on the cold ground. He laid down next to her and flung his cloak across the both of them, pulling her close to his chest. She snuggled against him, and they fell asleep in the grass.

**Author's Notes:**

**Dramatic chapter!~ Mental breakdowns, running away...all sorts of drama in there, lol. What did you think? Please comment and tell me! =)**

**I made some major edits to the chapter, and I sent it to my beta on Saturday morning but she was unable to get it back to me until now, so I apologize for the late update. I did a couple check throughs but feel free to point out anything that I may not have caught! Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

Gilbert awoke the next morning when the sunlight broke through the canopy of trees and into the forest. Elizaveta was pressed gently against him, still asleep, her hair falling all over the place. He smiled to himself and moved it off her face, kissing her forehead as he did so. He stayed still in the grass until a loud rustling from the tree above sent leaves falling to the ground. He tensed. The sound wasn't produced by a bird, and he had lived in the forest long enough to know that there weren't any predators – especially none that lived in trees – in this portion of the forest. Someone was up there.

He sat up slowly, acting as if nothing was wrong. Elizaveta woke up and muttered something when he jostled her, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She looked up at him as he sat listening, slowly moving his hand close to a rock to use as a weapon if needed.

"What's wrong, Gil?" she whispered a moment later. His fingers closed around the rock.

"Someone's in the tree," he muttered under his breath. "You remember how to fight, don't you?"

"I haven't done it in years, but I can still give him hell."

Gilbert grinned with a hint of a smirk. "That's my awesome girl." He stood up slowly, feigning a stretch, and then spoke at a normal volume. "Come on, let's get moving."

As they moved away from the tree towards Senka, the loud rustle happened again. They both heard soft footsteps land on the ground behind them, and as soon as Elizaveta heard them come close to her, she spun around and punched the mystery person in the face, then followed up with a knee to the groin.

"_Dios m__í__o_!_ C__á__lmese_!" the man cried as he fell to the ground. "That wasn't called for, _chiquita!"_

Elizaveta raised her foot to kick him in the stomach for good measure, but Gilbert placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head, setting down the rock he'd grabbed as a weapon.

Gilbert sighed and stared down at the green-eyed male. "You idiot! You can't just ambush us like that! Not awesome, Toni! You brought that upon yourself."

"Yeah, but I didn't think she'd _attack_ me!"

"I told you she was a badass."

"Thank you, Gil," Elizaveta interjected. "But who the hell is this?"

"Antonio Carriedo, at your service, my lady!" the man chirped as he popped up from the ground, quickly recovered save for a red mark on his cheek.

"Nice to meet you," Elizaveta replied, eyeing him warily, sticking close to Gilbert. "But let's leave off the "my lady" part in the future, okay?"

"No problem…wait! _¡Increíble! _You're Queen Elizaveta! Gil, you never said the girl you had back home was the _Queen of Clubs_! Geez, at least I didn't steal a _queen_!"

Gilbert frowned at Antonio, "Hey, man, not awesome. You're a cradle robber."

Antonio pouted. "I am not! Lovi's only four years younger than me!"

"Yeah, but when you two moved in, he was fourteen to your eighteen."

"Love knows no age, _mi amigo_."

Gilbert sighed and turned back to Elizaveta. "Lizzie, this is Toni, my crazy-ass best friend. We met in the settlement pretty soon after I…moved there."

"Gil lives right next door to Lovi and me!"

"Pleasure to meet you," Elizaveta said and grinned, sticking her hand out for Antonio to shake. "I'm sorry I hit you. If I had known who you were, I wouldn't have."

Antonio took her hand and shook it with a bright grin. "Don't worry, _querida!_ Gil is right; it was my own doing. It's nice to meet the famous Elizaveta! Gilbert never stops talking about you!"

Gilbert shot him a look, and Elizaveta laughed, elbowing Gilbert lightly in the ribs as he muttered something and blushed, turning away.

Gilbert petted Senka's muzzle and adjusted her saddle. "Anyway, Antonio and Lovino are our neighbors. When I was in training, we used to gang up and play all sorts of pranks on Old Fritz, the Joker before me. He was awesome, Lizzie, I wish you could have met him."

Antonio nodded solemnly, "He was admirable."

Gilbert nodded in agreement, looking off into space silently for several moments. Elizaveta reached over and intertwined her fingers with his, offering him a comforting smile. He cracked one back.

"Well, we should be off. It's not too far from here." Gilbert untied Senka from the tree, and led her along through the trees as the three of them walked side by side.

Gilbert and Antonio shared stories from the past four years, leaving Elizaveta in constant stitches of laughter from which she could barely catch her breath and had to lean heavily on Gilbert to keep from falling over. She pulled out her saddlebag when their stomachs began protesting in hunger, and they split the two sweet rolls and the apple.

"It shouldn't be too much farther, now," Gilbert remarked as he examined his surroundings.

"It's just past the line of trees," Antonio agreed. "_Querida,_ you'll love Wild Card!"

Gilbert slung his arm over Elizaveta's shoulders. "It's pretty flipping awesome."

They broke through the last dense line of trees into a clearing. The sun shone down on the treeless area, reflecting off a crystal-clear pond in the center. Small, quaint yet charming houses lined the sides, and a larger, brick building sat at the farthest end of the village. Another stone building was positioned so that one could just make out its façade through the trees at the edge of the village. Children played in yards whilst people tended to the small gardens everyone seemed to have. A few people sat at tables in front of the large building with bolts of cloth or food. They chatted happily with people who came to inspect the goods.

"It's beautiful," Elizaveta whispered. Gilbert smiled.

"I told you you'd love it," he said. "Everyone one here is from a different kingdom. Lovino and Toni are both from Hearts, we're from Clubs, Tino and Berwald live over there, and they're from Spades, and Bella and Lars are from Spades as well. Oh, and Feliks and Toris came from Diamonds. No one really cares what suit you are. We don't have sectors, and we don't have a hierarchy. We're all humans here – and that's it."

"Equality," Elizaveta said and grinned. "The whole planet needs some of that."

"Agreed," Gilbert nodded.

"Oi, tomato bastard!" a voice yelled from a house on their right. Elizaveta turned to see a young man with dark brown hair and an unruly hair curl dressed in khaki trousers and a white shirt glaring over at Antonio and crossing his arms.

"Lovi!~" Antonio sang and bounded happily over to him, pouncing on him and grabbing him in a hug. The man turned bright red and sputtered, trying to push the laughing Antonio off him and swearing his head off.

"Aww, they're so cute!" Elizaveta chimed.

"Kesesese, you sap," Gilbert teased. She elbowed him gently in the ribs, and he knocked into her for revenge.

"Lovi, come meet Gilbert's fiancée!" Antonio exclaimed and grabbed Lovino by the hand, dragging him over to Gilbert and Elizaveta.

"Hello!" Elizaveta grinned when Antonio stopped in front of her with Lovino and stuck out her hand. "Pleased to meet you."

Lovino's blushing face was quickly replaced with a flirtatious expression the second he noticed Elizaveta. "_Buon giorno, splendida_," he greeted her with a bright smile and kissed her outstretched hand instead of shaking it. "It's a pleasure to make acquaintance with such a pretty girl." Elizaveta turned scarlet and pulled her hand away slowly.

"Dude, Lovino, that's my fiancée you're hitting on," Gilbert glowered and put his arm around Elizaveta.

"And you're _my_ boyfriend!" Antonio pouted. Lovino shrugged and shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants. There was a long awkward silence before Lovino broke it.

"Sorry," he muttered, looking at the ground.

"No, it's fine!" Elizaveta interjected with a grin before Gilbert or Antonio could say anything more. "It was nice meeting you! Gil was just about to show me around. Oh, and you two make the cutest couple!" She beamed happily at them, giving them a small wave as she dragged Gilbert off.

"Nice save," Gilbert acknowledged as he directed her and Senka towards what appeared to be a stable.

"Diplomacy is the one good thing that came out of being Queen."

Gilbert laughed and pushed the door open to the stable, finding an empty stall and leading Senka into it. He filled her food container with oats and patted her head. He took all of the riding equipment off and instructed Elizaveta on where to hang it. After Senka settled in, they left the stables and Gilbert began the tour.

"That's the meeting house," he said as he gestured towards the building at the end of town with the vendors. "We have town meetings in there when we need to, and we elect our officials from a popular vote. Awesome, right? The vendors are usually people who either hunt a lot and can spare meat, or people who travel into a nearby trading post and buy things. We're almost completely self-sufficient, and we only send someone to the trading post for things we can't make ourselves, like cloth or oats. People go when they want, but we try not to make too many runs, and we buy in bulk. Antonio and Lovino go the most often. The only guy at the post is really old and he doesn't suspect we're all runaways or fugitives. We don't have any crime, though. We're all people who are innocent or oppressed, or…well, didn't elect to come here on their own will. Like me. But, it's so awesome here, isn't it? I love it. And…well, it's awesome to share it with you, Lizzie."

Elizaveta beamed at his blushing face and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "I wouldn't want it any other way." Gilbert grinned and squeezed their clasped hands.

"Our house is this way," he said, pulling her off in the direction they'd come. "As I said, we live next door to Lovino and Antonio and their tomato enterprise." Elizaveta peered into the yard; there were rows and rows of tomato plants and hardly any room to walk.

"I see they have a deep, passionate love affair with tomatoes."

"You don't even know the half of it," Gilbert replied and opened the door into their house. The house was small and made out of wood with a black roof. Elizaveta moved to go inside but Gilbert halted her.

"Wait!" he scooped her up into his arms bridal style and carried her through the doorway. "Tradition, Lizzie!"

"Since when are you traditional?"

"Since just now!" he declared, setting her down and shutting the door behind him. "I'm just that awesome."

She laughed brightly and beamed at him before looking around the house. They were standing in one large room, with a kitchen on the wall to her right as she entered, and a table and chairs sat a few feet away on her left. Past the dining table, there was a small bookcase with various books stacked on its shelves and a couch sitting next to the shelf. Two doors lead to the back of the house.

"The one on the right is the washroom, and the one on the left is our bedroom," Gilbert explained.

"Did you build this all by yourself?" she asked.

"Heh, sort of. Old Fritz helped me out. We shared a house for a couple years, but when I turned 18 I decided I wanted my own place so I could, y'know, have someplace for us to stay when I came back and got you. He trained me in magic while we built it, and it was my practice in control," he paused and laughed. "I cannot tell you how many boards I accidently snapped in half trying to place them properly with just spells."

She smiled and examined the room again. "He…seems very kind for a Joker. I mean, well, he was always portrayed so awfully in the papers, and he _stole _you…."

Gilbert sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "It's complicated. Complicated as hell. He shouldn't have been a Joker; he was too good. He gave the wisest advice in the world and had the most respect for humanity and equality I'd ever seen. He was selfless and kind and would give anyone a hand. He was nearing 70 when he recruited me, and Joker law says you have to choose an heir, or else the balance will be destroyed, not to mention the magic will have nowhere to go and no one to control it, so it'd be released violently into space and nothing awesome could come from that. That's when horrible things begin to happen, when the balance is offset. He said he picked me because he could get vibes off me that I wouldn't be evil. That I could use the powers correctly. He talked to me about equality, see, when I was walking back into the forest, and transferred part of his powers to me. I didn't have a choice at that point. I would have gone back for you, but the magic knocked me out cold. I just learned how to get back to Klubok a few months ago. Old Fritz…he didn't want the post, but he was literally forced into it. He was stolen from his home by the Joker before him in the dead of night. I…didn't want the post, but was the best candidate he could find for the job. He wanted to protect the world by training someone who wasn't some heartless bastard."

Elizaveta nodded. "He seems like a thoughtful man. I…was angry with him when I found out you were the Joker now, but…based on that…he really did pick the right guy. I wish I could have met him."

"He wanted to meet you," Gilbert replied. "I talked about you all the time and he said he'd help us get married legally when I went back for you. But…he died just days after I completed training and I hadn't gone back for you yet."

"I'm sure he'll be with us in some way when we do get married, yeah?" Elizaveta said and wrapped her arms around Gilbert.

"Yeah. Yeah, he will."

They stood together for several moments until Gilbert broke the embrace to grin at her mischievously.

"Well, how about we finish the tour? You haven't seen the awesome bedroom yet."

Elizaveta laughed and slapped his arm, playfully dodging a kiss he aimed at her cheek. "You pervert," she teased, but allowed herself to be scooped up and carted off to the room.

**Author's Notes:**

Sorry for the late update, I've been super busy! I hope you all like the chapter! Once again, the formatting screwed up on the way over, so hopefully it all looks okay...

Super giant thanks to UniquelyNerdy125 for betaing and helping me edit! You are totally and completely awesome! =D She writes PruHun as well, you all should check her out!

I might post the next update either early or late, since I have another speech meet on Saturday, but I have Monday off for President's Day. Long weekends ftw! Oh, and Valentine's Day is tomorrow! I'm not a fan of the day in general, but I hope everyone that celebrates it has a great day! ^^


	7. Chapter 7

When the morning sunlight filtered through the thin curtains from the window above the bed the next morning, the birds began singing. Their melodies were high and sweet, perfectly in tune. Elizaveta woke up but kept her eyes closed, smiling slightly to herself as the birds outside the window finished their morning song.

She opened her eyes slowly and rolled over to look at Gilbert. His arm was wrapped around her waist and her back rested against his evenly rising and falling chest. He was slightly slack-jawed in sleep, his silver locks tousled and sticking up in every direction. When he exhaled, she vaguely smelled the beer they'd had after dinner last night on his breath. She smiled again, moved over to press a soft kiss against his forehead, and slid out of between the cotton sheets quietly to avoid waking him.

She padded across the house toward the washroom, checking to see if her equestrian outfit was dry yet on the way over. It was her only set of clothes, and it was caked in dirt and mud from sleeping on the ground, riding Senka, and walking about town. She and Gilbert had scrubbed at the mud in the tub for hours yesterday, but nothing seemed to work, not even Gilbert's charms. They'd finally given up and hung the sopping wet, mud-streaked clothes up to dry. They were dry, but dirt cracked off and broke into pieces on the wood floor when Elizaveta reached up to touch the garments. She sighed in annoyance and proceeded on her way to the washroom.

Wild Card had managed to get running water that actually came heated with help from the more technologically savvy members of the village. The water was collected rainwater and a little bit of river water from the brook a small ways away. It was heated in a large underground tank and then distributed among the dozen or so homes in the village. Elizaveta turned on the water in the white bathtub, filling the tub with enough warm water to bathe in. She washed quickly and toweled herself off, throwing on Gilbert's bathrobe that was hanging on a hook when she finished. It was much too big and long for her, and she thought she looked like she was wearing a god-awful gown. She laughed a little to herself and smiled before stepping out into the main area of the house from the washroom.

Gilbert was standing at the stove, cooking breakfast. He kept trying to pat down his stubborn bedhead but failed miserably each time. She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso.

"Good morning."

"Good morning to you too," he responded, setting down the spatula and turning around for a good morning kiss.

"Ugh, you're all prickly!" she exclaimed after he pecked her on the lips. "I'll finish cooking, go shave!"

"My manly facial hair too awesome for you?" Gilbert wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and grinned cheekily.

Elizaveta laughed and gently elbowed him out of the way, picking up the spatula. "Just go shave!"

Gilbert leaned over and rubbed his stubble against her neck, darting away with a cackle when she raised her hand to smack him away. She grinned and shook her head as she stirred the eggs and sausages in the pan. When they were cooked, she stood on her tiptoes to reach into the cabinets above her head and pulled down two plates, placing food on both of them.

"What do you want to drink, Gil?" she shouted across the house as she rummaged in the icebox for drinks.

"Uh, whatever you're having. I don't really care," he called back, and then swore quietly. "Fucking razor…"

She pulled out a bottle of orange juice and poured two glasses. She set them and the food on the table, turning around at a knock on the door. She walked over and opened it, revealing a brightly grinning Antonio.

"_Buenos días,_ Lizzie!" he chimed.

"Morning, Antonio," she replied and returned the grin.

"I was heading out to the trading post for the day with Lovi! Do you and Gil need anything?"

She pondered for a moment. "Uh, yeah, I do, actually. If it's not too much trouble, could you…pick up some fabric or something for me? My only clothes are caked in mud and I'm kind of stuck wearing Gil's bathrobe at the moment."

"I'm sure he doesn't mind," he winked.

Elizaveta laughed, "I'm positive he doesn't. But it'd be nice to have some clothes, if it's no trouble for you."

"Oh, not at all, _querida!_ Feliks – he lives over there – is a designer and tailor. He makes everyone's clothes! I'll just pick up some fabric and drop it off at his place, and he'll make you some clothes in no time at all! I'll go talk to him, and I'm sure he'll love to! Just pop over in a bit to let him take your measurements."

"Really? Thank you so much, Antonio! I appreciate it."

"_De nada,_ Lizzie. My pleasure. Do you guys need anything else?"

"Let me ask Gil." She left the door for a moment and walked over to the washroom, poking her head in. Gilbert had shaving cream covering one half of his face and was nursing a razor nick on the over half of his face, glowering at the mirror as he dabbed it with a towel. She snickered.

"Apparently your manly facial hair was too much for the razor. Or your motor skills."

"Oh, shut up," he said with a glare as he dabbed at the cut. "It's a onetime thing. I'm too awesome for this to happen all the time."

"Of course you are, love," she replied and grinned at him. "Antonio wants to know if you need anything from the trading post."

"Oh, just some beer. And he's right when he said that I don't mind if you just wear the bathrobe."

She laughed quietly and shook her head, "Don't get your hopes up. I like clothes."

"Well, damn," he grinned at her, then went back to shaving as she returned to the door.

"He just needs some beer."

"Of course he does! All right, I'll be off, then. _Adios_!" He turned and waved.

Elizaveta waved in return before shutting the door. Gilbert walked out of the washroom, clean-shaven, a band-aid on his chin where he'd cut himself. He walked over and pressed his lips against hers.

"Less prickly?"

"Much. I approve."

"Awesome," he grinned. He sat down at the table and she sat across from him. They talked and laughed as they ate, swiping food off the other's plate and gulping it down quickly while the other protested jokingly.

"I'll do dishes," Gilbert offered when they finished, taking their plates to the sink. "What are you planning on doing today?"

"Antonio told me to go over and see Feliks about getting some clothes made."

"I still say clothes are optional. You look awesome without them."

"Oh, stop, you're making me blush. I _need_ clothes. Now drop it."

"All right, all right, I'll stop. When are you going?"

"After I change into those muddy things," she gestured at her hanging garments. "Because I'm not wearing a bathrobe out in public."

"Refraining from commenting."

"Thank you." She stood up and snatched her clothes off the clothesline, going into the washroom to change. She slapped as much of the dried dirt off her pants as she could, washing into down the drain in the tub. She pulled on the pants and shirt, leaving the jacket hanging. She tied her hair up into a long ponytail and walked out of the bathroom, collecting her boots and banging the dried mud off them outside the house.

"Heading out?" Gilbert asked as she pulled the boots on.

"Yup," she said and kissed him. "I don't know when I'll be back, but I shouldn't be that long."

"I'll be around," he replied, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets. "See you later."

"See you!" she said and gave a small wave as she walked up toward the house Antonio had indicated as Feliks's. She knocked on the door and waited.

The door flew open and a small, thin, blonde man with a bob stood there, wearing a bright pink tunic and pants. "Like, oh my god! You must be Elizaveta! Like, come in!" He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her indoors, shutting the door behind them. "I'm Feliks, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you."

"So you totally need some clothes, right?"

"Yeah," she replied as she was ushered into a small room in the front of the house, which was home to bolts of fabric, a sewing machine, and a couple mannequin forms. "This is my only outfit, but the mud won't come out, and I can't really wear this all the time, anyway."

"Totally agree. What do you like to wear?" Feliks asked.

"Well, I've been wearing all these proper-queenly gowns for the past few years, and I hate them. I'm just not someone who likes to wear regal or fancy things. It's not who I really am."

"I totally understand," he said, sketching away on a piece of paper. "Here, how's this?" He handed Elizaveta the paper. He'd sketched a mid-thigh-length tunic with tight pants and next to it a red skirt with a white shirt and brown bodice. Each outfit was sketched with a pair of boots, the same one from her equestrian outfit.

"I can totally get your shoes cleaned," he added as she examined the outfits.

"I love them," she said with a grin. "You're awesome at this."

"Aw, thanks!" he chimed. "I, like, totally love it."

"How much for the two outfits?" she asked.

"Oh, no, darling, think of it as a welcome present! We're happy Gil, like, saved you and stuff. It's totally my treat!"

"Oh!" she said in surprise. "It's a lot of work, at least let me give you something –"

"Like, no!" he shook his head defiantly. "It's my treat and that's that."

Elizaveta opened her mouth to protest again, but Feliks ran at her and slapped his hand on her mouth. "No more talking about payment! Nuh-uh!"

She glowered at him for a full minute, and he stared back. Finally, she sighed and muttered against his hand, "All right, I surrender."

"Yay!" Feliks exclaimed, removing his hand and spinning around. "I win! You totally need more than two outfits, though, Lizzie! Can I call you Lizzie? Okay, so, I'm making you five. Don't even try to, like, argue, because you're getting them whether you want them or not, okay? So! Come here and let's sketch!"

They sat down together at the table that Feliks had sketched the first two outfits at. He pulled out a pencil and paper, and he set about making her the perfect looks. He asked her what she liked and didn't, tweaked things as he sketched that she pointed out, and chose color combinations. They talked about what everyone was wearing in Sector Ace, and laughed at some of the gaudy things that the nobility thought was flattering. Feliks had lived in the capital before he fled to Wild Card with Toris, he mentioned, so he knew exactly the horrifying outfits she was referring to.

After they'd decided on clothing, he had her stand on a small pedestal he moved to the center of the room. He got out a long yellow tape measure and began measuring her all over, making notes as he went along. He was measuring her waist when the door to their house opened.

"Welcome home, Toris!" Feliks sang out as he noted her waist measurement. A man with shaggy brown hair stepped shyly into the room, smiling at Elizaveta.

"Ah, h-hello. I'm Toris."

"Pleased to meet you! I'm Elizaveta," she said with a grin and extended her hand. Toris shook her hand and returned the smile.

"I was just out getting some groceries for lunch, would you like to stay?"

"Oooh! Lizzie! Eat lunch with us!" Feliks bounced over to her, his hands clasped in front of his chest. "Please?"

She laughed, "Well, if you don't mind having me, I'd love to."

"Yay!" Feliks said, happily going back to taking the last of her measurements. "Just let me finish these up."

He quickly measured the last of her limbs and noted them on his card, filing it away for reference when he started to make the clothes. Elizaveta walked into the kitchen, where Toris was making sandwiches for lunch.

"What could I help you with?" she asked.

"Ah, uhm, would you mind slicing this cucumber?" He handed her the vegetable and a knife, gesturing at the cutting board. "I would very much appreciate it."

"Of course!" she agreed, setting to work on the cucumber. Feliks flitted around, trying to help, but proved to be more hazard than help in the realm of the kitchen. Toris finally successfully distracted him by having him help by carefully carrying plates and glasses to the table. When Elizaveta and Toris had finished making the food, they brought it over to the table and began eating.

Feliks told Elizaveta all sorts of stories about their time in Diamonds, before they moved to Sector Ace, and before they moved to Wild Card. Diamonds was the fashion capital of the world, but the economy was poor and Feliks wasn't able to start a shop, so he put in a visa and moved to Sector Ace to work, but he didn't get much work because Clubs "had totally awful fashion sense." Toris had fled from Spades to Sector Ace during the Civil War as a refugee. When they met and began hanging out, someone decided they were a threat to the Clubs government and demanded they be arrested, but the man who reported their "crimes" was a xenophobe who was angry that Feliks's shop was performing better than his wife's. Feliks and Toris had fled Sector Ace, and stumbled upon Wild Card when they'd run into the forest to hide.

"They wouldn't follow us in," Toris explained. "They're too afraid of the spirits they think lurk here."

"Gilbert said that's why this place is so successful," Elizaveta replied, "because no one will come in to find us."

"Totally!" Feliks agreed. "That's why we're all safe here: suits and sectors don't matter."

"The whole kingdom – no, the whole world – should be this way," Elizaveta said listlessly. Toris and Feliks nodded in agreement. The kitchen clock chimed one o'clock.

"Oh, I should probably be getting back! I told Gil I'd only be gone for about an hour and it's been more than three."

"Oh, bye, Lizzie! Hey, hey, will you and Gilbert have dinner with us on Friday? We'd, like, love to have you!"

Toris smiled and nodded in agreement. "It would be our pleasure."

"Oh, well, of course! Thank you so much for the invitation." Elizaveta beamed. "Gil will love to come. We'll bring something over; it's not fair for the hosts to cook everything."

"Wicked!" Feliks cheered. "See you at six on Friday, Lizzie!"

"Bye, Toris, Feliks!" Elizaveta called as she walked out the door. She smiled and looked at the sky as she walked back home. She had friends, and they liked her for Lizzie – not because she was the queen. She laughed lightly to herself and grinned widely again as she walked the path.

**Author's Notes:**

**Heh, sorry for not updating for so long! I've been super busy! I'm going to Hawaii on Friday morning, so I've been working on my homework in advance and doing all sorts of things to prepare. I'm going to be gone from March 2nd until March 12th, so I won't be updating at all during that time! I'll be posting Chapter 8 on Thursday to make up for it! **

**I know this is a bit filler - this and 8 are largely character introductions with a little bit of plot development. Hopefully you liked it, though! Please tell me what you thought! ^^**


	8. Chapter 8

She walked across the short distance back to their house, nodding and smiling at other villagers as she went. The sun was out, and the temperature was pleasantly warm; it was the perfect weather for being outside. She spotted Gilbert lying on his back on the green grass of the front yard, staring up at the clouds that floated past in the blue sky.

She walked up next to him. "I hate to break to you, sweetie, but you're albino and don't tan anyway."

He rolled his head to the side to look at her more effectively. "No, I'm just too awesome to tan. Come down here," he patted the grass next to him. "Look at the clouds with me."

She lay down on the grass next to him, her head just barely touching his shoulder.

"Feliks and Toris invited us for dinner on Friday at six. I said we'd come. That's all right with you, isn't it?"

"'Course it is! Hey, you're making friends. That's awesome."

"Yeah, I guess I am," she said with a smile.

"Hey, does that look like a horse to you?"

"Uhm, it has a horn. Unicorn? Underweight rhino?"

He pointed at the clouds and they debated what each cloud looked like. They were on their thirtieth cloud a couple hours later, and debating whether it was a dragon or an elephant when Antonio strolled over.

"_Hola!_ Cloud watching?" he said as he grinned down at them.

"Yup," Lizzie answered. "Pretty awesome. Now, does that cloud look like a dragon or an elephant to you?"

"Uhm," Antonio leaned down and looked up, cocking his head to the side. "I'd go with elephant."

"Ha! I told you so, Lizzie!" Gilbert exclaimed and sat up quickly. "The awesome me wins again!"

She laughed, "Fine, fine, you win. I surrender." She rolled over on her stomach and looked at the two men. "So what's up, Toni?"

"Lovi and I just got back from the trading post a little bit ago. We got some meat and copious amounts of alcohol!" he grinned mischievously. "And we're having a bonfire tonight for dinner. You're invited, of course!"

"So you plan on getting drunk out of your minds around a hazardous, potentially lethally, fire?"

"_S__í__!_"

"We're in," Gilbert and Elizaveta said together, grinning and laughing. Antonio beamed even wider.

"_Fant__á__stico!_ Come over whenever. We're just going out to get some firewood now!"

"You want us to bring anything?" Elizaveta questioned.

"The more beer the awesomer," Gilbert interjected. "Beer cool, Toni?"

"Yup!" he chimed happily and turned around, skipping across their yard back to his. He set to work laying a circle of stones so that the fire wouldn't set the grass and people around it on fire.

Gilbert stood up and went inside to rummage for beer in the icebox. He came back out with three beers in each hand, and the two strolled over to Antonio and Lovino's yard. Antonio had finished laying out the rock circle, and Lovino was loading logs into the center of the pit.

"Hey, Lovino, want a beer?" Gilbert asked, cracking one open for himself before moving to open another one.

"Sure, potato bastard," he answered gruffly, grabbing the beer and taking a swig. He went back to go get more firewood.

Elizaveta accepted a beer from Gilbert as he popped the cap and held it out to her. "Is he in a bad mood?"

"No, that's just how Lovi is," Antonio explained as he also took a beer from Gilbert. "He's nice to women but he tries to act tough around other guys. But he's really just my sweet little Lovi!"

"Shut up, tomato bastard," Lovino muttered as he came back from the backyard with an armful of firewood. "Stop saying weird shit."

"Haha, Lovi, you're so cute!"

Lovino glared at him and tossed the wood down on the pile of logs. Antonio flashed him a grin before standing up to go get a match and some paper to light the wood with. Gilbert followed in after him and stole the chairs from the kitchen, putting a line of four a safe distance away from the fire. He took a seat in one and gestured for Elizaveta to sit in the one next to him. When she sat down, he slung his arm around her shoulders and pecked her on the cheek.

Antonio bounded out of the house with a fistful of paper and box of matches, placing the paper close enough so that it would set the wood on fire. With the flick of his hand, the match caught and lit the paper successfully. It quickly exploded into flames, and soon engulfed the small log at the bottom of the stack and spread to the top. When the flames died down to a level safe for cooking meat, Lovino and Antonio went inside to pull out the meat and sticks for roasting. Antonio carried the meat and skewers, and Lovino followed a second later with more beer, some wine, and glasses.

The meat and sticks were passed around, and it was cooked with minimal damages – Lovino almost set Antonio on fire when he panicked after his meat became engulfed in flames, but Gilbert managed to put out the meat before anything precarious could continue. They sat calmly around the fire, eating and chatting.

Elizaveta pulled off a piece of meat, and Gilbert leaned over and snatched it from her fingers with his teeth. She turned to glare at him, and he grinned, the meat poking out a few inches from between his teeth. She leaned over and bit down on the meat, ripping it off from between his teeth, winking as she did so.

"I would like to propose a toast!" Antonio called, raising his beer bottle to the sky. "To Elizaveta and Gilbert, because you've overcome everything and you make the cutest fucking couple _ever_."

Elizaveta laughed happily and Gilbert chuckled along. They raised their beer bottles in acceptance of the toast and thanked Antonio before drinking another sip of beer.

"How'd you guys meet, anyway?" Lovino asked, taking a drink from his wine. "Just out of curiosity."

"Hey, yeah! Gil never told us!"

Elizaveta looked at Gilbert, "you want to tell the story?"

"Ah, well, sure," he said, finishing off his beer and opening another. "I was…seven years old, and I'd been doing some chores for a family up in Sector 4. The man of the house was pretty awesome, and he gave me a free pass out of the village on this really sunny day so that I could have a place to play outside instead of being inside all day. I was standing there at the gate, and Lizzie was just in front of me. She shot me this awesome grin, even though she was clearly from a higher sector than I was. She got through no problem, but I was nervous and gulping and shaking when I handed the guard my pass, but he let me through without any problems. And when I went through the gate, Lizzie was there waiting on the other side. And we've known each other ever since."

"That's so cute!" Antonio gushed, his speech beginning to slur ever so slightly from the alcohol. Gilbert and Elizaveta laughed, both blushing. Gilbert rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"So, what about you and Lovino, Toni?" Elizaveta asked.

"Oh! Can I tell her, Lovi?"

"Do whatever you want."

"Yay! Lovino and I are both from Hearts. I was working in my family's shop and we sold tomatoes, which are Lovi's and my favorite food! Lovi came in one day, and he bought some tomatoes. He was the cutest thing! He wouldn't listen to me, though, and kept swearing at me whenever I'd try to talk to him, whether I was flirting or not. But he finally came around, right, Lovi?" Antonio paused to look over at Lovino, who had drawn his knees up against his chest and was glaring at his glass of wine, blushing the brightest red he possibly could. "Oh, Lovi, you're so cute! Just like a little tomato!" he leaned over and pecked Lovino on the cheek before finishing his story.

"When he finally came around, I realized he was from a really rich family in Hearts, one that was actually involved in politics. His grandfather had been a great leader in the Hearts military and was the Jack now. We couldn't be together in Hearts because of how different our social standings were. Hearts' cities aren't sectored like the ones in Clubs, but the hierarchy is still very obvious. So, one day, Lovi and I decided to run away, and we did! We made it here, and the rest is history!"

"That's so romantic!" Elizaveta enthused. "You guys are adorable."

Lovino muttered something unintelligible and drank wine straight from the bottle while Antonio laughed joyously.

"Hey, free alcohol? How come no one invited me?" a voice said from over by the fence.

They looked over a saw a grinning woman with short blonde hair and green eyes leaning on the fence. Behind her stand a tall and imposing man with spiky blonde hair and a scar on his forehead.

"Bella! Hey!" Antonio waved. "C'mon! We've got food and all kinds of alcohol! Oh, hi, Lars! You want a beer?"

The gruff man nodded, and Antonio tossed one to him. The guy popped it open with his teeth expertly and took a long drink. Bella hopped the fence and accepted the open beer Antonio held out to her. Lovino excused himself to go get a chair for Bella to sit in, muttering something about getting Lars a chair as well as an afterthought.

"Bella, this is Elizaveta, Gilbert's fiancée. Lizzie, this is Bella. And that's Lars, her older brother. They live a few houses down," Antonio introduced.

"Hey, pleased to meet you!" Bella exclaimed and smiled. "So you're the runaway queen, are you?"

"Something like that," Elizaveta laughed. "I'd much rather be here with Gil instead of that damned palace."

"I hear you!" Bella agreed, sitting down in the chair Lovino brought out and set next to Elizaveta. "Lars and I are from a noble family over in Spades, you see, and it was just so stuffy and fake! We couldn't stand the place, so we just left. Plus, I'm sure you heard about the civil war. The one that got Alfred and Arthur on the thrones? I'm happy that they are ruling Spades, since they'll do a great job – but that war, it just wasn't pretty."

"Yeah, it seemed to be incredibly gruesome from the reports. It's a good thing you got out."

"Mhm. Who knows what might have happened. I'm glad we found this place, though."

"I love it here. It's just so…awesome."

Bella snickered. "You've been hanging around Gilbert a lot, haven't you?"

Elizaveta laughed. "Well, yeah, of course! But really, this place is perfect. I just feel at home here. I mean…sappy as it sounds, Gil's a large part of that feeling. But, the village is just so inviting."

"I know what you mean. I felt that way when Lars and I moved here. It's just so warm and accepting. No one cares about your past, just who you are in the present."

"If only the whole world understood like this place does."

"Amen." They clinked beer bottles and sipped the brown liquid.

"Hey! Hey, Lizzie!" Gilbert yelled.

Elizaveta and Bella turned their heads and glanced over at Gilbert, who was waving his arms triumphantly. "We found fireworks! Those ones that stay on the ground, too, so we can use them!" he exclaimed.

"Oh God, drunk men with fireworks?" Elizaveta said.

Bella laughed. "We should probably go make sure no one gets set on fire."

"Drunk girls making sure drunk guys don't do dumb shit? I don't know about you, but I'm about one beer away from slurring like crazy. This is my fifth."

"Damn, I thought at your size you'd be hammered by three."

"I hold my liquor well."

They got up and walked over to where Gilbert, Antonio, and Lovino were lighting the fireworks and Lars was observing whilst smoking a cigarette. Gilbert set a wick on fire, and then hopped back quickly before the fountain began spewing out red, blue, purple, and green sparks.

"Another awesome thing about the Dark Forest is that we can do fireworks early because it gets dark in the late afternoon," Gilbert said as he stood next to Elizaveta, watching the flying sparks excitedly.

"It's gorgeous," Elizaveta said, smiling at the sparking column.

"Yeah, you are."

She elbowed him in the ribs. "Now who's the sap here? You got that from some cheesy novel, didn't you?"

"Damn, I'm caught."

Elizaveta giggled. When the firework ceased sparking and had cooled slightly, Antonio went forward and kicked it out of the way to make room for another fountain.

The rest of the evening was illuminated with brightly colored sparks and characterized by laughter and bottles of beer. When they all finally stumbled home, smoke and alcohol scents clinging to their clothes and bodies, the sun was threatening to rise over the dark trees surrounding the village.

**Author's Notes:**

**Here's Chapter 8! Mainly just more character introductions, but hopefully you all enjoyed it nonetheless. Chapter 9 and 10 are the climax, so the plot will get going in full swing next chapter! Please tell me what you think!**

**Btw, I'm going to be in Hawaii until March 11th. I'll have internet at our condo, but I'm not sure when I'll have time to be online since there's a beach and sun and hopefully cute boys. XD But anyway! Leave me a review with your thoughts and make me happy when I check my e-mail :3**


	9. Chapter 9

Three days later Elizaveta awoke to darkness when Gilbert stirred and crept out of bed.

"Huh? What'sa goin' on?" she slurred sleepily to the dark in the room, propping herself partway up in bed, her bleary eyes searching the room in disorientation. Gilbert chuckled quietly in response.

"I'm heading out to practice spells in the forest. We talked about it last night."

"Oh, yeah. Right. Have fun," she murmured, setting her head back down on the pillow. She felt lips on her forehead briefly and then she fell back asleep.

When she next awoke, the sun had risen and Gilbert had long since left to venture deeper into the dense forest. She stretched as she sat up in bed. Rubbing her eyes and yawning sleepily, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She walked toward the kitchen and found a note sitting on the kitchen table in Gilbert's signature scrawl.

"_I made coffee and left it on the heat, so it should still be warm when you get up. There's also some sausage __in the icebox__ that just needs to be heated and Toni brought over a loaf of bread. I should be back around six. Ich liebe dich, Gilbert."_

She smiled at the note and placed it back down on the table. The coffee pot was indeed still warm, so she poured herself a cup. She heated the sausages in a pan on the stovetop and toasted some bread in the oven. When the food was cooked, she placed it on a plate and opened the front door, sitting on the stoop to enjoy her breakfast in the warm morning sunlight. Next door, Antonio was hitching up a small cart to his brown horse.

"_Buenos días, _Lizzie!" he called happily as he waved.

"Good morning, Toni," she smiled and waved back. "Where are you headed?"

"Lovi and I are going to the trading post again! The price of tomatoes is high right now, so we can make some money! We need some groceries and stuff anyway."

"Ah, I see. How far is the trading post?"

"Hmmm, it's probably a good two hours if you're galloping the horse and it's just one rider. With a cart, it probably takes more like three and a half."

"Oh, wow. That's a long ride. Good thing it's still early."

"Exactly!" he chimed. The cart was securely attached to the horse, so he turned towards the house and loudly sang, "Lovi!~ Time to go!"

"Oi, okay, bastard. I'm coming." Lovino slouched out of the house, dodging Antonio's attempt to kiss his cheek. Antonio pouted at him but was further ignored, so just sighed and hopped onto the horse. Lovino jumped on behind him.

"Bye, Lizzie! See you later! Say hi to Gilbert for me!" Antonio called as he snapped the reins on the horse to encourage it to move.

"Bye, Toni!" she replied and waved. She set about finishing off her coffee and breakfast, and then went inside to wash the dishes and set them out to dry. The clock in the living room read ten o'clock, so she had hours to kill until Gilbert came home. She dressed in her still-muddy equestrian outfit and set out to take a walk around the village.

She walked along the path that followed the group of houses on their side of the pond. At the very end was a house painted powder blue, with an abundant garden full of brightly colored tulips covering the front yard. Two people were working in the garden, their blonde heads bobbing as they pulled weeds out from between the tulips and tended to the soil.

"That's a lot of tulips," she remarked as she stopped in front of their white fence.

Bella's head shot up out of the group of red tulips her face had been buried in. "Lizzie! Good morning!" Lars glanced over and nodded at her, muttering a greeting before going back to his work.

"Morning, Bella, Lars."

"Hey, you know anything about gardening? Because Lars insisted upon having this many tulips and it's hard to weed them all with just us two."

"This is your garden?" Elizaveta said with surprise at Lars.

He looked up and glared at her. "I like tulips, all right?"

"He likes tulips, cigarettes, and alcohol."

"Shut up, Bella," he said and glowered, throwing a weed at her. The clump of dirt landed on her blue skirt and she glared down at it, throwing the weed so it smacked Lars in the back of the head as soon as he turned around.

"Watch it, Bella," he warned.

"Whatever, Lars," Bella responded, then turned to look at Elizaveta. "You mind giving me a hand with this patch?"

"Sure, no problem. I like tulips." She opened the gate into the yard and knelt down next to Bella. "So what do I do?"

The blonde gave her a trowel and explained the basics of weeding to her, demonstrating as she went. They pulled weeds until their hands and under their fingernails were covered in dirt, and their clothes splotched with soil from the occasional weed fights they got into which always sent them on their backs with peals of laughter. Lars simply weeded on his own, a cigarette between his lips, rolling his eyes at them. Elizaveta was trying to wipe the tears from her eyes from laughing when Feliks skipped by.

"Like, hey! Lizzie!" he called.

Elizaveta looked up from the garden and grinned at him, waving in greeting. "Hey, Feliks. What's up?"

"I finished your clothes! You should come try them on!"

"Damn, you work fast!" she complimented. "I'm kind of dirty right now, but I can be over in about forty minutes?"

"Fabulous!" Feliks chirped. "See ya then!" he waved happily and skipped off in the direction of his house, and she could see him pounce on Toris's back when he saw the man in the front yard. She stood and dusted herself off – although it did little good – and bid Bella and Lars goodbye.

She walked back to her house and entered. After she took a fast, cool bath, she threw away the soiled shirt that was past redemption and put her pants back on, walking to the bedroom to steal one of Gilbert's shirts. She selected a casual white button-up and put it on, rolling up the sleeves so her hands could actually been seen. She pulled her damp, towel-dried hair into a messy bun on the top of her head and set out for Feliks's house. The walk was short – nothing was more than two or three minutes away in the village – and she knocked on the door when she arrived. Toris answered the door seconds later.

"Ah, good morning, Miss Elizaveta."

"Morning, Toris. And Lizzie is fine."

He smiled. "All right, Lizzie. Uh, let me get Feliks. Please come in."

She stepped inside the house and Toris disappeared down a hallway, softly calling for Feliks. The blonde man bounded out of the hallway, nearly knocking Toris over at the end of the hallway, and pranced right up to Elizaveta.

"Hi, Lizzie! Oh my god, you're going to totally love what I made you. For real!" he exclaimed, pulling her into his studio. On the table were laid five outfits; the tunic and pants outfit and the red skirt outfit they'd discussed; another tunic, made of black and green fabric with black riding pants; a dress, a green number that looked like it would hit around her knees and came with a black jacket; and finally, a slim-fitting black shirt with a green vest, accompanied by dark, denim pants.

"Here, here, try this on first!" he instructed, shoving a bundle of clothing into her arms and pushing her behind a screen in the corner. "I want to see my totally awesome masterpieces!"

She tried on each outfit, each of which fit flawlessly. Nothing was too tight or too loose, and every garment was comfortable and flexible and breathed and didn't make her feel like a stuffed sausage. After Feliks was satisfied with his work, he sent her on her way, calling after her to remember to come to dinner tomorrow night. She waved and promised she would be there. Humming to herself happily, she strolled back towards the house in her new tunic and pants. Candles were flickering in the window, but it was only four o'clock. Had Gilbert come home early?

She opened the door and stepped inside. At the table sat Gilbert, Lovino, and Antonio, all of their faces grim. A tall stack of newspapers sat on top of the table. She swallowed nervously as they regarded her with unsmiling faces.

"What…what's wrong? What happened?" she asked as she slowly approached the table. Gilbert turned the stack of papers around towards her, gesturing for her to sit down. She did, and he handed her the top paper.

"Read it. Aloud." he instructed. She nodded and did so, her voice shaking.

"'Reports from the palace indicted that Queen Elizaveta was kidnapped by the Joker after he managed to escape from his prison cell. He allegedly forced her to use her all-access codes to open the doors of the tower and the city gates. King Roderich has released a statement that Clubs troops have been dispatched in search of the Queen in every direction. He is requesting cooperation from all members of the all the Kingdoms in an attempt to find Queen Elizaveta, and urges anyone with information to notify the palace immediately.'" She stopped and set the paper down, falling back in her chair, her head swimming. She looked at the giant stack of papers, easily a couple feet tall. "Do they all say the same thing?"

Antonio nodded. "I found them at the trading post today and rushed right back. They're apparently looking for you everywhere. That paper is dated a couple days ago."

"T-they're gonna find me," she whispered.

"Fuck no, they're not!" Gilbert asserted. "That's not happening, Lizzie. They won't find us here. It's impossible. No one would venture this deep into the Dark Forest."

Antonio nodded again in agreement, "It is highly doubtful any troops would come in this deep. Not to mention, the paper from the Hearts capital said that the search was concentrated around Klubok and border towns. But for caution's sake, neither you nor Gil should leave the village until the search is either ceased or lessened in degree. We're pretty far away from civilization, though. The Clubs border is five hours away, the trading post is two, and the nearest town is an hour away from the trading post. We're too far off the beaten path."

"Bastard's right," Lovino spoke for the first time. "The guards are too much of pussies to come into the forest. They were looking for us when we ran away but they wouldn't come near this damn place. They think it's some sort of hell portal. Most of them won't even come within a mile of the trees."

"Right," Gilbert said. "And we're not letting them take you, even if they did come here. I'd fight them off." His red eyes burned with determination.

"I will too. They won't even see what hit them!" Antonio exclaimed.

"Damn straight," Lovino agreed.

Elizaveta smiled. "I'd fight too. There's no way I'm going back." She grinned boldly at Gilbert, who reached under the table to grab her hand, giving it a tight squeeze.

Antonio grinned widely at her. "Don't worry your pretty little head about a thing, Lizzie! They'd be no match for us!"

"Exactly. Everything will be fine," Gilbert said to everyone. "Nothing will happen."

They all nodded in agreement, but they knew the peaceful time they'd expected was quickly coming to a close.

**Author's Notes: Hey, everyone! Sorry for the long wait between updates! I was in Hawaii - we had 4 feet of rain, 50 mph winds, HAIL, and the island next to the when we were on had A TORNADO - and then it took me a week to get caught up in school. But it's 80 degrees in March in Indiana! Isn't that crazy? It's nice, though, I'm enjoying it whilst I can! =D**

**Here we get into the climax! What did you think of the chapter? I know the beginning is primarily filler for the ending, but I hope you liked it! Leave me a comment telling me what you thought? =)**


	10. Chapter 10

"Dinner with Feliks and Toris last week was fun," Elizaveta remarked as she undid her ponytail, letting her hair fall over her shoulders.

"Yeah, it was," Gilbert agreed, taking off his shirt and changing his pants into sleepwear.

"We should have them over sometime. Maybe with Toni and Lovino. Like a dinner party kind of thing," she mused, turning around to look at him whilst she brushed her hair. "What do you think?"

"Parties are always fun," Gilbert grinned. "Lots of beer?"

"Well, duh. We're probably alcoholics by some people's standards."

Gilbert chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind as she set the hairbrush down on the dresser. He kissed her jaw and she laughed lightly, turning around to press her lips against his for several moments.

"I'm tired," she said when she pulled away. "Time for bed."

"And here I was going to be all romantic," Gilbert said, sighing dramatically.

"I'm sure you can wait until morning," she teased, bumping her hip against his. "You'll survive."

"Somehow."

She laughed and kissed him quickly again, getting in bed and blowing out the candles on the bedside table. Gilbert moved over and slung an arm across her waist, and she interlocked their fingers, settling back against his chest. He exhaled warm air into her hair, and they drifted off into sleep.

Shouts rang out in the middle of the night, followed by the loud pounding of hundreds of feet on the ground. Deep voices hollered out into the night. Gilbert jolted awake in bed, sitting up rapidly.

"What the fucking hell?" he swore, running for his clothes. Elizaveta snapped awake as well, jumping out of bed when she saw Gilbert rushing in a panic.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know," Gilbert grunted, yanking on his pants and then his shoes. He flung the top left dresser drawer open and snatched his revolver. "But I'm sure as hell going to find out." He ran for the door.

Elizaveta snatched up her shoes and put them on quickly, throwing on one of Gilbert's shirts over her camisole as she followed Gilbert out the door. She paused for a moment in the kitchen, looking for potential weapons. She selected a large, heavy, cast iron frying pan and darted out the door.

A group of horsemen were standing in the middle of town, only a few yards from their house. Gilbert and Antonio were talking to the large group of armed men calmly. Citizens of Wild Card stood at a war distance from the armed men, the few parents in town ushering their children to stand behind them and far away from the horsemen. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark, Elizaveta could see the ensign on their uniforms: the emblem of the Clubs royal guard. She swallowed hard, staying hidden in the shadows as well as she possibly could.

"Now, look, we don't know what you're talking about," Antonio said calmly to the head guard. "We're just a group of refugees. I think you're in the wrong town. My friend, uhm, Fritz here isn't the Joker. He's just some other poor soul cursed with albinism."

"He's telling the truth," Gilbert said, exaggerating his German accent to the point he was hard to even understand. "I don't know nothing about any Queen Elizabeth or Emilia or whatever. I'm from Spades anyway, sir. Our Queen's a dude."

The head guard regarded them both with narrowed eyes. "You expect us to believe you? You, albino, fit the profile of the Joker precisely. And you look awful lot like the man who ran off with the one of Jack of Heart's grandsons. Your friend standing behind you over there looks a lot like the missing Lovino Vargas."

"His name's Jimmy," Antonio covered quickly. "And I sure as hell didn't run off with him. He's a bit of a burden to the whole village, y'know. Just some bum that sleeps in my tomatoes."

Lovino snorted but kept his mouth shut. The head guard cocked his eyebrow at Antonio.

"Oh? So you hate him? So doing this shouldn't be a problem then, should it?" The man raised his revolver and aimed it straight at Lovino. Antonio stiffened.

"Now, you don't need to shoot the poor bastard," Antonio forced out. "He's an okay guy when he's not drunk…."

"I'm just taking him out of his miserable existence," the head guard replied, his trigger finger twitching threateningly. Antonio opened his mouth to counter, but the gun went off. In a split second, Antonio had swung his axe up from its resting position on the ground and knocked the gun out of the guard's hand. The gun broke cleanly into two metal hunks, and the bullet pierced through the walk of Elizaveta and Gilbert's house instead of Lovino's skull. Lovino stood stiff with wide eyes that darted between Antonio and the shooter.

"Don't fucking shoot at him," Antonio growled. "Try to harm him again and you won't be leaving here alive."

The royal guard smirked. "What could you possibly do?"

"Bad choice of words," Antonio said with a menacing smirk. "Because now I'll have to show you."

"Antonio, calm down –" Gilbert began, his fake accent dropping, but Antonio had already swung his axe at the head guard, slicing him diagonally across the torso. The man tumbled dead off his horse. There was a slight pause before all hell broke loose. The guards rushed forward, attacking Antonio and Gilbert in a frenzy. Lovino regained his composure and whipped out duel pistols, shooting guards left and right as they tried to attack people from their blind spots. Gilbert tried to stumble out of the mob, but ended up in fistfights with several men at once. Some of the royal guard began lighting torches and tossing them into the wooden houses bordering Wild Card, quickly setting them up in flames. Gilbert shouted at the unarmed stander-bys to take the children and run, and the couple young families in town did as instructed and disappeared into the forest behind the village. Elizaveta regarded the bloody scene for a moment before she jumped into the battle, smacking several guards who were attacking Gilbert unconscious. Gilbert grinned his thanks and gave her brief instructions.

"Try not to kill anyone if you don't have to. We're trying to prove we're not bad people here."

"Right," she nodded. She swung the frying pan, catching a guard square in the face. He fell to the ground. She stepped over him and hit a few other attacking members. She was eventually separated from Gilbert in the fray.

She was in combat with two young guards when one of them halted mid-swing with his sword.

"My lady?" he asked in confusion. Elizaveta paused for a second before raising her pan to swing, but the guard toppled over before she could swing. Antonio stood behind him, his axe lodged in the man's back. The Spaniard removed the axe and looked at her. There was blood splattered across his face and clothes. His green eyes held a wild look she hadn't seen in them before, and his voice came out more gruff and accented than it usually did.

"How are you holding up, _querida?_"

"Uh, f-fine," she stammered out. "He…uhm…recognized me."

Antonio frowned. "Damn. Well, just keep doing what you're doing. We'll figure something out."

Elizaveta nodded. "Okay."

Antonio darted off, his axe taking out many more guards as he went. She saw Gilbert several yards away, dodging weapons and using his revolver to knock people unconscious instead of shoot them. He had been sliced across the arm but was ignoring the wound. He seemed to be one of the few people left that were not killing the guards. She spotted Lovino on the top of a brick building's roof, using his double pistols to pick off guards that tried to kill from behind.

A man on a horse suddenly came riding up quickly, his sword outstretched.

"My apologies, my lady," he yelled before his sword smashed into the back of her head.

Everything went black for her as she crashed into the ground. Another horseman with a second soldier sitting on the back rode by quickly, the second guardsmen reaching down and hoisting the unconscious Elizaveta onto the back of the horse by her top. They hollered loudly, and the guardsmen ceased fighting, all throwing their remaining torches on buildings and sprinting out of the village.

"What the fuck?" Gilbert exclaimed, disoriented by all the horses rushing past him as he struggled to keep his footing.

"Gilbert!" someone screeched from the roof of a surviving building. He looking up and saw a panicked Lovino.

"Some fucking guard got Elizaveta!" he called down, gesturing wildly at the retreating horseman. "They knocked her out!"

"God damn it," Gilbert swore, moving in the direction Lovino was gesturing. He shouldn't have let Lizzie out of his sight. Someone must have recognized her and…

He grunted as he was grabbed by his collar. One of the royal guardsmen was grinning at him maliciously. He struggled against the man, but the man held his collar firmly and galloped his horse as fast as he could at a nearby building engulfed in flame.

"Burn in hell, Joker," the man sneered, hurling Gilbert into the burning structure.

He tumbled into the flaming remnants of a house, smacking down on the wood floors that had yet to catch fire somehow. He groaned in pain from the impact and propped himself up on his forearm, then paused and surveyed his surroundings. All the walls had caught fire, along with the roof. He seemed to have entered through a large gap where the wood had been consumed already. He army crawled towards the gap, but a ceiling beam crashed down in front of him. He moved back from the beam as quickly as possible.

"Shit, shit, shit," he mumbled, soon realizing what a bad idea speaking was as he inhaled a large lungful of smoke. He coughed and hacked in an attempt to expel the smoke from his lungs. He crouched as close to the floor as he could, where the air was the least smoky. He tried to assess a way to get around the burning beam, but there were no openings. He was stuck.

He turned around on the floor to look behind him to see if there was an opening, but was met with a blast of smoke to the face. He wheezed and choked again, the smoke burning his eyes and causing tears to fall, his lungs burning with the toxic compounds in the smoke and their desperate need for oxygen. He saw an opening across the house, but he would have to crawl under several flaming beams threatening to collapse along with a thick cloud of dense gray smoke. He took a deep breath of the purest air that was possible in the room, and began crawling across the floor. He poured sweat from the intense heat of the fire, his eyes and lungs aching with a painful urgency. He moved as quickly as possible, but was only able to make it halfway across the room before he started coughing violently. He tried to summon a spell to help him, but all his mutterings produced were feeble sparks that fizzled out the second they hit the air. The sparks sapped on his already limited strength that the smoke was stripping away. He couldn't cast a spell to get him out of this one.

His vision was blurring to the point he could barely see the opening anymore, and his head felt light and dizzy. He wanted to fall on the floor and lay down. He tried again to move, but his oxygen deprived muscles collapsed from under him as he tried to crawl. His limbs thudded to the ground, and he was just barely able to keep his head up. He tried to use his arms to push himself across the floor, but they fell limp at his sides again.

With his fading and blurred vision, he was just able to make out someone bursting through the opening he'd been trying to move toward, their arms covering their face from any flames that might be in the way. They landed not too far from him, crouched on the floor. The brunette Spaniard grinned at Gilbert quickly before grabbing him and hauling him onto his back. He hung limply, supported only by Antonio's grip on his arms as Antonio dashed back out of the opening in the wall.

Fresh air hit his lungs as they burst into the cool night. He returned to coughing and hacking as Antonio carried him away from the building being consumed by fire and into the center of town.

"Someone get people to try to stop these fires," Antonio commanded as he trotted into the center of town where everyone had gathered. "Gilbert needs medical care. Now. He's inhaled a lot of smoke. Don't you guys have something for that?"

Antonio set him down next to some other villagers who were being patched up by Toris. Tino and Berwald, a couple who's house used to be down the street from Gilbert's, were working on medical care as well as collecting water to try to stop the fires from spreading. People who had fled had returned, placing their children in the care of the medical attendants, and were volunteering to help stop the rampant fires that consumed the town.

"Toni," Gilbert wheezed, "They captured Elizaveta. Someone's gotta…"

"I know, Gil. Lovi told me. We're going to get her back, don't worry," Toni offered him a reassuring grin before dashing off, shouting more orders. "Get me a bucket of water! We're going to put out these fires!"

Toris smiled at Gilbert as he moved to look him over. "Miss Elizaveta is very strong. I am sure she is alright."

"I know," Gilbert coughed. "Lizzie can handle herself." He hacked violently.

"Berwald?" Toris asked the tall man who was currently wrapping bandages around someone's arm. "You used to be a doctor. Didn't you bring medical supplies with you when you came? And stored them in the meeting house in case of an emergency like this? Gilbert needs oxygen. Do you have tanks?"

Berwald nodded. "I'll g't 'em." He ran off towards the completely brick meeting house, one of the few surviving buildings in Wild Card.

Gilbert hacked. "How many people are hurt?"

Toris smiled calmly. "Don't worry about that. Mister Antonio has everything under control. Tino, can I have a wet cloth? His temperature is too high."

Tino handed Toris the cool cloth and Toris placed it on Gilbert's forehead. Toris noticed a gash across Gilbert's arm and another on his chest that had come from a sword, and quickly cleaned the wounds and bandaged them as Gilbert's body shuddered with violent coughs. Berwald came running back with a tank of oxygen and a mask. He'd rigged it so that it'd flow at a slow enough pace and work without the fancy medical machinery they lacked in the remote area.

Toris attached the mask to Gilbert's face. "You just need to breathe. Your magic should take effect and help clear the smoke from your lungs. You're lucky about that since usually you'd require some extensive medical treatment."

"I'm just that awesome," he remarked, inhaling the oxygen. His lungs felt better as they absorbed the oxygen. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, breathing in the clean air deeply. His eyelids were heavy and muscles exhausted.

"Elizaveta…" he muttered before he fell into an exhausted sleep.

**Author's Notes: Well, hi, everyone…long time no see, eh? ^^; **

**I want to apologize for my absence. I didn't mean for it to take so long. I can make a million excuses – prom, AP exams, work, finals are in two weeks. My beta is a very busy lady as well and took a long time to edit all the chapters. On the bright side, they're all edited now and can be posted. This weekend I'll probably mass upload a few for you. I'm really sorry you all had to wait so long for this. Hopefully you still like it and stuck with me! Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate it. :3**

**And if you have any questions about the story, or future stories, or want updates about my silly little life, or to just chat, or whatever, follow me on Tumblr: purpleskyjuliet. tumblr .com **

**I'll answer pretty much any question you have. Or if you just want to yell at me for disappearing for a month and a half and then giving you a high-stress chapter that's cool too.**

**Stay lovely!**


	11. Chapter 11

_He was in the meadow. His palms were sweating. He was nervous, impossibly nervous. When would she come? Shouldn't she be here by now? The clock in the distance had chimed noon twenty minutes ago. Where was she?_

_Arms slipped around his chest and lips pressed against his cheek. He tensed in surprise._

"_Hey there, handsome," her voice said, and he turned around to grin at her. He kissed her firmly._

"_Hello there, gorgeous. Done with lessons?"_

"_Yes! They took forever today. That one tutor just will not shut up," she groaned. He laughed._

"_You're just too awesome for lessons."_

"_Well, of course I am!" she joked along with a grin. She walked over to the stream and sat down on a rock on the bank, dipping her feet in the cool waters. "So what was it that you wanted to ask me, Gilbert?"_

"_Oh, I…." He began and stopped, playing with the ring in his pocket. He took a deep breath and assured himself he was too awesome for her to refuse. She loved him. He loved her. Nodding to himself with determination, he walked over to her and sat down on the rock next to her._

"_I love you, Lizzie."_

_She turned to look at him and smiled. "I love you too, Gil."_

_He cleared his throat. "I…want to be with you. Forever. I know that I don't really have much of a case…with the sector difference and all…but…" He moved off the rock and got down on one knee, pulling out the ring he'd forged himself from his pocket. "It would be really awesome if you would marry me, Elizaveta."_

_Her green eyes were wide in shock, but seconds later she broke into an __ecstatic__ grin. "Of course I will!" Grinning widely, he slid the ring onto her finger. She tackled him in a hug and pressed her lips against his, sending them both flying into the shallow waters of the river._

His eyes snapped open then and he groaned. Just a dream. Where was he? This wasn't his house. Where was Lizzie? He sat up and opened his mouth to call for her when he realized where he was.

He was in the meeting house. He had been sleeping on a blanket that had been placed on the wooden floor. Lots of people were crammed into the small brick building, with many of them were sleeping on blankets as he had been. He remembered last night; the royal guard had come and torched the town, stealing Elizaveta in the process. His fist clenched at his side.

"Gilbert!" a voice called across the hall. He turned to see Antonio picking his way across the floor of people, carefully avoiding those who were sleeping. He stopped next to Gilbert, crouching down. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm hungry and thirsty and the royal guard stole my fiancée," he answered, his voice still vaguely hoarse from the smoke he had inhaled. "But other than that I'm pretty good."

Antonio clapped him on the shoulder. "We're going to get Lizzie back, don't worry about that."

Toris walked over to them, a bowl of steaming liquid in his hand. He handed to bowl to Gilbert, who thanked him and began to sip the soup from the bowl. "You look better this morning," he said. "You didn't cough all night either, so the magic is doing its job very efficiently. You should have completely repaired lungs in just a couple of days."

"Awesome," he replied. "So I can just do whatever?"

"Well, no," Toris answered. "Don't exercise too much. You won't be able to get enough oxygen for your muscles. And you need to make sure you're sleeping every night for a long amount of time."

Gilbert scowled and opened his mouth to say something, but Antonio covered his mouth with his hand and gave Toris a cheery grin as Gilbert turned his glare to Antonio. "Don't worry about a thing, doc! I'll make sure he's not a dumbass!"

Toris laughed and Gilbert glowered. Another person in the hall began hacking violently, and Toris dashed off in the direction of the noise. Antonio removed his hand from Gilbert's mouth.

"I mean it. I'm making sure you're not going to do anything stupid. You'll be completely useless if you don't let yourself heal, Gilbert," Antonio said seriously.

Gilbert glared but eventually sighed in surrender. "Yeah, all right, fine. I'll be careful. Now, no one would tell me last night; what are the damages?"

"Most of the houses are gone. The one that aren't gone really aren't able to be lived in. Your house was only burned half-down before we put out its fire, so we salvaged some clothes and books from your house. The meeting house and supply house are both brick, so they survived. We've got places for people to sleep and then a place to safely store food and such. About ten are dead or missing. Some were burned and it…it was hard to identify them. Almost all the survivors are wounded. Some…may or may not make it. It's unclear as of now."

Gilbert paused for a long moment, absorbing the information. "We're down to about 40 people, then. Do we have enough supplies?"

"Enough for a while, yeah. We can't really go trading anymore, though, so we're going to have to be careful and ration."

"…And what about Elizaveta?" he asked quietly after a moment. Antonio shook his head.

"I'm sorry, _amigo_. By the time we could organize a search team and send them out, the guards were long gone."

"Shit," Gilbert muttered, setting down his empty bowl. "What are we going to do? We need to rebuild, we might even have to relocate, all these people are hurt, I've gotta go after Lizzie…"

"I have an idea," Antonio replied. "I don't know how much you'll like it, but follow me." He stood up and walked off in the direction of the staircase leading to the basement of the meeting house. Gilbert followed a couple steps behind.

The basement was a dark and cold place with corridors only lit by dim oil lamps on the walls. Various rooms had been built for storage or potential hide-outs. Antonio and Gilbert walked for a minute through the maze-like corridors before they arrived at a large wooden door that Lovino stood guard at. He wielded his dual pistols and was sitting on a barrel labeled "salt."

"We…captured a guard."

Gilbert sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not only did you lose your cool and go crazy and murder people, you kidnapped them too?"

Antonio grinned sheepishly. "He shot at my Lovi!"

"I don't belong to you, bastard," Lovino grunted from his barrel.

Antonio ignored Lovino's protest and explained his plan to Gilbert. "I was thinking we could do a hostage exchange. You know, the guard for Lizzie."

"A guard for their Queen? Yeah, they'll bite at that." Gilbert sighed and turned the doorknob to push open the door. "We need to think of – Holy shit! Ludwig?"

A blonde man of about eighteen was tied to a post in the middle of the room. His face was vaguely bloody and his uniform was ripped. He raised his blue eyes to stare at Gilbert in shock.

"_Bruder?_" the man said. "You're alive?"

"_Ja_, I am," Gilbert replied, walking over to the post and untying Ludwig's ropes. "Shit, Ludwig, I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" He pulled the ropes loose and hugged his brother as tightly as he could. "_Mein Gott_, I didn't mean to disappear like that. I'm so sorry, Luddy."

"Gil! That's our hostage! Why are you hugging him?" Antonio exclaimed, poking his head in.

"Oi, what are you doing?" Lovino yelled from the hallway. "Don't untie the bastard! And don't hug him either!"

"I'm hugging my brother, who you seemed to have kidnapped," Gilbert snapped. He stood and walked over to the door. "We're going to have a conversation, and you two are kindly going to leave us be." He shut the door firmly and turned back to Ludwig. "You're in the royal guard?"

"_Ja_. I'm a squadron commander."

"Hey! That's awesome, Luddy. I'm proud of you." Gilbert ruffled his little brother's hair. "I always knew you'd be the successful one."

"That's what Vati said too."

Gilbert laughed loudly. "Of course he would. Hey, how are Mutti and Vati?"

"They're fine. We write every couple weeks," Ludwig replied. "They didn't take your disappearance well, though, Gilbert."

"I know. I know. I didn't…it wasn't supposed to happen that way. I was leaving but I wasn't planning on vanishing into thin air."

"It's been four years. We all thought you were dead."

"I know. I thought about that all the time."

Ludwig was silent for a moment. "You're the Joker, aren't you?"

Gilbert ran a hand through his hair as he sighed. "Yeah. I'm the Joker."

"Do you want to explain why you kidnapped the Queen?" Ludwig asked, his voice verging on cold.

"It isn't kidnapping when she's your fiancée and it's her idea."

"Wait – Queen Elizaveta is the same Elizaveta you were engaged to?"

"Am engaged to. And yeah, she is."

Ludwig rubbed his wrists where the ropes had been chaffing against his skin. "I had no idea, _bruder_. It's a very common first name."

"It's cool, Luddy. But…can you help us get her back?"

Ludwig raised an eyebrow at his brother. "You want me to help you kidnap the Queen?"

Gilbert sighed in exasperation. "Luddy, we're rescuing her! Pay attention!"

Ludwig glared at him. "I doubt the rest of the world views it as such, Gilbert. You're being irrational!"

"I know I'm irrational, but does it look like I care? We can't just leave her there. She hates it in the palace, and I'm not letting her go. When they look at the evidence surrounding my breakout, she's going to be in some deep shit. And I need to get her out before that happens. I don't care how the fuck we get her out, but we're getting her out. You can help if you want or we can just leave you in this basement and do it on our own."

"You're blackmailing me?"

"I prefer being persuasive."

Ludwig just stared apathetically at him. Gilbert stared right back, the ropes that had tied Ludwig to the pole still in his hands.

"I'm not just going in after Lizzie," Gilbert said. "They want to kill me. The magical balance will become completely disrupted without the Joker. Then we'll have actual evil spirits floating around these woods and wreaking havoc on citizens. The purpose of the Joker is to prevent those evil spirits from ever existing. They can only form from magic released into the world when someone who possesses magic skills doesn't pass it down to someone else before they die. They kill me and they've got a lot more to worry about than they do now. I want to help prevent that from happening, and the court isn't going to listen to me on my own since Antonio kind of went apeshit on their private guards."

Ludwig stared at the wall instead of Gilbert for several long moments before he sighed in defeat.

"All right, I can help. Look, if you want to get her out you're going to need a bigger force than you currently have. I've got a friend in Hearts. He's…he's the Jack now. I think that if you explain the situation to him we can get Hearts on our side and supporting us. He's the only one in the triad at the moment since the other two leaders left no heirs when they died," Ludwig explained. "And he's…well, he's agreeable. If we can get the Hearts military to escort you to Sector Ace you can speak with King Roderich there and tell him what you need to tell him."

"Not just Roderich," Gilbert said. "I want the ruling families from each of the Kingdoms all to listen to my appeal."

Ludwig sighed. "Your demands are making this more complicated. But we probably can get that arranged."

"All right. When do you want to go?"

"Tomorrow, if you want to get this done quickly."

"I think I can arrange that," Gilbert replied and stood. "Are you hungry?"

"_Ja_."

"I'll get you something to eat," Gilbert went to turn away, then turned back. "I didn't mean to blackmail you, Luddy. If you really don't want to go through with this, I won't force you."

Ludwig shook his head. "It's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Gilbert turned and left the room. Antonio and Lovino were both waiting outside, Lovino still sitting on his barrel and Antonio leaning on the opposite wall.

"We're going to Hearts tomorrow with Ludwig. We're appealing to their government. Now I'm going to get a bowl of soup for my brother, and we're going to treat him nicely and not like a prisoner, got it?" Gilbert glared at Lovino pointedly, who scoffed and muttered something rude under his breath.

"Gather some supplies. We're riding first thing in the morning," Gilbert ordered, heading back out through the maze to the main floor of the meeting house. He could do this. He could change the way things were run. Right?

**Author's Notes: I meant to update yesterday, but I ended up going out for my birthday and didn't get home until pretty late. The Avengers was such a great movie! And my friend has an awesome convertible, so getting to drive around it that was great. Today's my actual birthday and Mother's Day, but I'm just taking it easy. Anyway, here's chapter 11, hope you liked it!**


	12. Chapter 12

The back of her head throbbed when she woke up. She moaned in pain and rolled over, her throat parched.

"Gilbert?" she rasped, reaching over toward the other side of the bed. "Gilbert? Where are you?" She opened her eyes and surveyed the room. It was fancy, and definitely not their bedroom. She bolted up in bed, her head protesting furiously with a sharp throbbing. Oh no. Oh, no, no, no, no. She couldn't be back here. She reached up and cradled her throbbing head in her hands. They'd taken her back. They'd smashed her in the head and carried her back to Sector Ace.

She was still wearing Gilbert's shirt and her shorts and camisole, and she hugged the shirt tighter around her body. Rising from the bed, she marched forward toward the door to her chambers and opened it.

Outside the door were five guards each armed with swords and guns. They all turned toward her as she stood shocked in the doorway.

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded in her most angry, queenly voice. "Let me pass!"

"I'm afraid that is not possible, my lady," a tall guard said. "We're under orders from the King himself to not permit you to leave."

"And why would he do that?"

"I don't know, my lady. We're just following orders."

"I demand to see the King at once and hear what he has to say on this," Elizaveta fumed. The guards stood and stared and did not move. "Well, go on and get him!" she screeched at one of the guards, who promptly scurried off in the direction of Roderich's office. She slammed the doors firmly. She began to check all the drawers for anything she could use to break out; all the sharp objects had vanished from the dresser, the vanity, the cabinet in the washroom. The mirrors had been replaced and the walls cleaned. Her closet didn't have her revolver hidden in the corner anymore. It housed only her clothing. She sighed and rubbed her face in frustration as she sat down on the bed.

They'd locked her in. Her windows couldn't be broken, and she was on too high of a floor to jump anyway. She had no rope. She had no supplies, only her clothes and cosmetics. How was she going to break out now? And her head was killing her...she needed a couple aspirins.

A knock sounded on her door, and it opened a moment later. Roderich entered the room, his hair styled meticulously and his clothes perfectly pressed and tailored as always. She narrowed her eyes at him as he closed the door to her room.

"What the fuck, Roderich?" she said as soon as the door clicked shut.

He winced. "No need for the language, Elizaveta."

"What the hell is going on here?" she demanded, ignoring his request.

"You're under house arrest."

"So you had your guards seek me out, smash me on the back of the head to knock me out, and take to back to the palace to be locked in my room."

"I understand you weren't exactly going to come willingly because you seemed to be off playing house with the Joker."

"We weren't playing," she retorted. "We were living. I was happy."

"You seemed perfectly happy here, Elizaveta."

"Well, then you have much worse people reading skills than you think you do, Roderich."

He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. He took a deep breath. "I think you'll understand way you've been placed on house arrest. You're being investigated for assisting a high-profile criminal escape as well as for treason. Until the investigation deems you innocent, you are not permitted to leave this room. Angelique will be taking care of you. Is there anything you need?"

"Two aspirins and some divorce papers."

Roderich closed his eyes and cleared his throat again in an attempt to keep calm. "I'll have Angelique bring you food and aspirins. Good day, Elizaveta." He turned and exited the room.

She laid face down on her bed. As much as she tried to formulate a plan, all she could think about was how hopeless her situation was. She had no idea or way to escape, no way back to Gilbert, and if she was found guilty – which she was sure to be – then she faced certain death. She'd led them straight to Gilbert, and who knows what they did with him after she was unconscious? He really could be dead this time for all she knew. She tried to keep her cool and stay strong, but she ended up hugging Gilbert's shirt around her torso as she curled into a ball on the bed and sobbed into her knees.

Quiet footsteps entered her room in the middle of her emotional outburst. She heard a tray being set on a surface as she hiccupped out her sobs. A hand hesitantly stroked her hair in an attempt to calm her.

"It's okay, my lady," Angelique said timidly. "His Highness means you no harm."

"I don't give a shit about Roderich," Elizaveta choked out. "That's not what's the matter."

"Do you wish to talk about it, my lady?"

"Have you ever been in love, Angelique?"

"Yes. Once."

"Now imagine for four years you thought he was dead, or at least gone for good. During that time you were forced into a marriage with a man you barely knew. Then, one day, you hear that someone like him is a wanted criminal. So you go and capture him to see if it is him, and when it is, you run away with him like you were supposed to in the first place. And for the first time in your adult life you're happy and free and people like you because you're you and not because you're rich or the Queen. But then you have it all yanked away from you again and you're locked in a room you detest with no means of escape, with no way of knowing how he is and if he's okay, and you're being tried for crimes punishable by death. Do you understand?"

Angelique was quiet a moment. "Yes. I think I understand."

"Well, that's what's the matter."

"You truly love the Joker, my lady?"

"I love Gilbert more than I could ever express."

Elizaveta had calmed her sobs by that point and laid limply on the bed as she stared at the opposite wall. Angelique sat quietly on the bed, contemplating to herself. After many minutes, she stood and whispered.

"There is aspirin and food for you on the vanity, my lady. I wish you well."

The door opened and closed a minute later, and Elizaveta stayed motionless on the bed, her eyes damp and puffy, staring blankly at the wall. The food remained untouched.

**Author's Notes: Sorry that it's so short. My beta said that it was all right to have one short chapter since the others are longer. I'll update soon to make up for it!**


	13. Chapter 13

When the sun rose the next morning, Gilbert went down to the basement of the meeting house. Lovino was asleep on the ground next to the door, his pistols loosely held in his hands, his head leaning on Antonio's shoulder, who was also in a deep sleep. He nudged Antonio with his foot.

"Huh? What? Oh, _buenos días_, Gilbert," he yawned.

"Can you get Lovino up and then go load up four horses with supplies? We're riding straight through to the capital of Hearts to speak with the Jack."

"I think…I think that's Lovino's grandfather, Gil," Antonio whispered, his green eyes darting quickly to the sleeping Lovino.

"Are you fugitives in Hearts?"

"Not technically, no," Antonio said. "I mean, they searched for us, but I don't believe in was anything more than a missing person's ordeal. His brother knew about us. I…don't think his grandfather would have pressed charges or anything."

"It'll be fine," Gilbert reassured Antonio. "Nothing's going to happen. It's a quick appeal. And if we're rejected we just run like hell anyway, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Right," Antonio nodded and smiled. "Everything will be fine."

"Exactly," Gilbert replied. "Now wake up sleeping beauty and get your asses in gear."

"Yes, sir!" Antonio chimed and shook Lovino's shoulder. "Lovi! Rise and shine, beautiful!"

Gilbert opened the door to Ludwig's room. Ludwig was already awake, eating a leftover roll of bread from the previous night.

"_Guten Morgen, bruder_," he greeted.

"Morning, Luddy. We're going to go pretty soon. You sure you know how to get to the Hearts capital from here?"

"Yes, of course I do."

"All right, well, come on, then." Gilbert gestured for Ludwig to follow him. They walked out toward the stables. Gilbert averted his eyes from the scorched buildings of Wild Card. The sight of the destruction made him sick to his stomach.

"I'm sorry, Gilbert," Ludwig said.

"It's not your fault, Ludwig."

They arrived at the stables, another one of the few remaining buildings since it was on the outskirts of town and hidden by a row or two of tall trees. Antonio and Lovino had just arrived. Antonio was putting saddles and harnesses onto four horses, and Lovino was checking that they had enough food supplies and each had a weapon. Lovino handed Gilbert a revolver and Antonio a hatchet.

"What about Ludwig?" Gilbert asked as Lovino turned away from handing out weapons.

"I don't trust him. I'm not giving him a weapon."

"He's my brother," Gilbert asserted. "We can trust him."

"He's a member of the damned royal guard," Lovino shot back. "He's one of the enemy. He stole Elizaveta and torched the town."

"He did not! He didn't mean it, at least! He's on our side!"

"He could be lying for all we know!"

Gilbert opened his mouth to yell something back when Ludwig spoke calmly. "I don't mind not having a weapon, Gilbert. You need to calm down. You're getting too emotional about this."

Gilbert huffed. "Fine, whatever. Let's just go already, okay?"

They mounted the horses and galloped off in the direction of the Hearts capital. After an hour or so of riding, they broke out of the Dark Forest and into the light terrain of Hearts. Hearts was a kingdom known for its large expanse of beached coastline on the west side and its flat, green grassy fields on the inland. The climate was usually bright and sunny, and today was no exception. Ludwig was at the head of the group, and he lead them away from the roads that ran directly through the cities. Gilbert kept the hood of his jacket over his head in case they came along someone who might recognize him. They rode across the plains for hours, stopping only once to eat a quick meal before they returned to heading for the coastal capital of Hearts.

Ludwig halted their horses when they began to smell the ocean, and pointed toward a sprawling city roughly a mile away.

"That's Cuori, the capital," Ludwig told Gilbert, as Lovino and Antonio were from Hearts and knew full well where they were. "They are not sectored so they will not ask for papers. I'll show my ID at the gate to my friend's house and we should all be let in without a problem."

"Awesome," Gilbert replied. Ludwig nodded and they resumed their journey to Cuori, this time at a slower pace. Behind him, Gilbert heard Antonio and Lovino whispering; Antonio sounded worried while Lovino seemed angry as usual, although his voice faltered a few times, and both voices shifted momentarily to tender before back to their original tones. They eventually fell silent as they approached the city.

They rode into the city directly down through the bustling center road, heading directly through the center of town. People were out and about, and paid little mind to the travellers. It was far louder than any city in Clubs; people were calling out to each other and bickering over the prices of items at street stands. Street performers did tricks and people dropped coins into their cups. Some citizens were leaning out of apartment windows and shouting down or across the street to their friends. People naturally seemed to speak louder here.

"Hey, Lovi, remember that shop?" Antonio said, pointing at a small wooden building with a large glass front window and an open door. Inside was a stand of tomatoes.

"Of course I do, bastard," Lovino scoffed and blushed. Antonio laughed happily.

Ludwig directed them to turn down a side street and cross off the main road. As they emerged on the other side, the homes began getting larger and more ornate. They rode up an avenue, passing by several mansions until they came to the last house on the street. It was three stories tall, with dozens of open patios, doors, and windows. It was a home with Spanish architecture. Two guards stood at the black gate that surrounded the perimeter of the property. Ludwig dismounted his horse and conversed with one of the guards, showing him his ID.

"I'm here to see the Jack," he explained. The guard looked at his ID and nodded.

"You and your friends can head on in. My partner will take your horses to the stables and send someone to tell Mister Vargas that you're here."

They all dismounted and entered the property. As Gilbert looked back to see the direction the horses were being taken, he noticed that Lovino was pale and looked nervous. Antonio was holding his hand tightly and speaking softly to him, but Lovino was ignoring the words and keeping his eyes glued to the ground. Gilbert averted his eyes and left them to their moment.

They entered the large home and a servant lead them into a sitting room.

"Please make yourselves at home," the maid instructed. "The master will be in momentarily."

Her eyes lingered suspiciously on Lovino for a moment before she curtsied and dashed off. They didn't even have time to sit before a short, thin man with reddish hair with a curl sticking out to one side bounded into the room.

"Ve!~ Ludwig came to see me!" the man exclaimed, rushing forward to jump on Ludwig in a hug. Ludwig blushed a bright scarlet and awkwardly returned the man's hug. Lovino looked dumfounded, his mouth agape, whilst Antonio appeared pleasantly surprised. When the man pulled out of the hug, he turned and saw Lovino on the sofa. "_Fratello_ came too!" He skipped over to Lovino and hugged him.

"Let go, Feliciano!" Lovino struggled against Feliciano's grip.

"His brother," Antonio explained to Gilbert. "I don't know if Lovino's mentioned him to you before or not. He's so adorable!"

Gilbert watched the struggling brothers battling over a hug for a moment before Lovino finally succeeded in breaking out of his brother's grip.

"No hugs!" he shouted. "Hugs are not allowed!"

Feliciano's eyes welled up with tears and he sniffled. "Okay, _fratello_. Where have you been?"

"I've been living out of Hearts. W-With Antonio."

"Ve! You're still together!" Feliciano sang. "Can Antonio be my big brother too?"

"Sure!" Antonio exclaimed.

"Yay!" Feliciano ran forward to give Antonio a hug.

"Stop it!" Lovino snapped and Feliciano pulled away from Antonio, looking hurt. "Now we're only here on business," Lovino continued. "We need to talk to grandfather. He's the Jack."

Feliciano cocked his head to the side. "No, he's not the Jack anymore."

"Since when?" Antonio asked.

"Grandfather died a year ago, right after the other two members of the triad," Feliciano explained in a sad voice. "And without _fratello_, I was the only heir. I'm the Jack now, but I don't have a King or Queen to help me."

"You're in charge? Just you?" Lovino stared at him. His face displayed an odd mixture of shock, worry, and grief until he managed to regain his cool expression and clear his throat.

"Exactly! It's just me here now."

Ludwig cleared his throat, "We need to speak with you about something, Feliciano."

"Okay!" he chimed. "Anything for Ludwig!"

Ludwig blushed whilst Lovino stared him down like he might shoot him any moment. Antonio placed a hand on his shoulder and chimed something happily in a pitiful attempt to calm him down and stop him from cursing under his breath about "potato bastards."

Ludwig coughed. "This is my brother, Gilbert. His fiancée was kidnapped by the Clubs royal guard, and he needs protective force to accompany him to Sector Ace. He's the Joker, you see, and currently the Clubs government wants him dead. But if he were to die, magical powers that he currently controls would be released and corrupt the balance of the world. He needs to go and explain that to King Roderich, and assure them that he wants to work with the government and not against it."

"And I also want to…push for desectorization," Gilbert interjected. Everyone turned to stare at him. He hadn't mentioned this before. "I've been thinking about it a lot. I mean, it's simply unfair to have sectors. People shouldn't be treated a certain way and denied education and privileges just because of who they were born to, their money, and their sector number. Clubs is the only kingdom left that has them. If we hadn't had sectors, none of this would have happened with Elizaveta and me. We'd be together happily and I wouldn't have to go get Elizaveta back from the royal guard."

"Ve? Elizaveta? Queen Elizaveta?" Feliciano cocked his head to the side.

"Yeah," Gilbert answered. "I was engaged to her before she married Roderich. She was forced into it. We…love each other very much, and we need your help in order to be together. If it's not too much trouble, we'd like your backing when I speak with the leaders of the other kingdoms and some soldiers to escort us to Sector Ace so that we aren't attacked by the Clubs military."

Feliciano looked misty eyed. "Ve! Of course you can take my military! In the name of love!"

Ludwig pinched the bridge of his nose, "Because the magical balance being disrupted and the world spiraling into chaos, along with equality for everyone, is less important than love."

Gilbert grinned and hugged Ludwig around the shoulder. "Now you get it, Luddy!" Ludwig just groaned in response. Gilbert laughed. "Thank you, Feliciano. I appreciate it."

Feliciano responded happily to Gilbert's thanks and enthusiastically shook his hand. "Queen Elizaveta is nice! She should be happy!"

"Can we stay tonight, Feli?" Antonio asked. "We'd like to be well-rested before we travel to Clubs, and your troops will probably need time to organize."

"That's right, ve! Of course you can stay the night! I'll ask someone to prepare rooms for you!" Feliciano went to the entrance to the room and called down the hall to a maid, who came in and curtsied.

"If you'll follow me, please, we have some guest rooms already prepared," she said and walked off. Lovino, Antonio, and Gilbert turned to follow after her. Gilbert thought of something to tell Ludwig last minute, but when he turned around, he saw Ludwig and Feliciano embracing, Ludwig pushing a kiss to Feliciano's forehead.

"Ve!~ I missed you, Ludwig."

"I missed you too."

"_Ti amo!"_

"_Ich liebe dich_," Ludwig said, awkwardly turning a deep crimson while Feliciano giggled happily and grabbed his hand, chattering excitedly to Ludwig about his day.

Gilbert smiled to himself a little bit before turning back around and leaving the two alone.

The maid led them up the stairs and down a hallway on the second floor. Lovino and Antonio were shown into a room on the left, and Gilbert was shown to a room across the hall from them. The maid curtsied and wished them a good night before she went away.

Gilbert entered his dark room that was illuminated only by a candle on the bedside table. He stripped off his shirt and hung it over the back of a chair. He walked to the window and gazed out into the night sky. A shooting star flickered across the sky. He closed his eyes and made a wish that everything would go smoothly in Sector Ace and that Elizaveta was okay, wherever she was right now. He sighed to himself.

"Good night, Lizzie. I love you."

He took off his pants and got into bed, blowing out the candle and enveloping the room in complete darkness.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: I'm not so sure about the quality of these later chapters...I don't know, I feel like they didn't manage to live up to what I had in my head. So if it sucks, I apologize. I was going to do some editing, but my Grammy was recently hospitalized and almost died. She's okay for now, but she was seriously ill and if the procedure they did is to fail at any point, that's it. She's recovering at a remarkable pace and should actually be released somewhat soon. I missed all my finals, too, so I'm just super stressed out. I didn't update since I was in Michigan so I could visit her everyday at the hospital. We just have to be on our toes now, since who knows what could happen. It's just very stressful. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed.<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, Feliciano stopped by Gilbert's room to shyly explain that his case had been a hard sell to the military minister, and that Ludwig was out explaining the magical balance to the minister. It was working, he said, but the minister still hadn't agreed to leave today and they would probably have to wait awhile.

Gilbert spent hours pacing back and forth in the sitting room anxiously. Lovino and Antonio sat on a couch for a couple hours, but eventually decided to go out and walk around Cuori instead of sitting and waiting. Gilbert kept pacing until morning turned into afternoon and afternoon turned into evening. Finally, Ludwig entered the house. Gilbert ran at him and gripped him by the shoulders.

"How did it go?"

Ludwig shrugged Gilbert's hands off his shoulders. "Stop being so hyperactive, Gilbert. It went fine. We can leave tomorrow."

"Tomorrow! We can't wait that long! Who knows what could happen!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the arm and returning to pacing in front of the windows in the sitting room. "This is not awesome at all."

Ludwig sighed and sat down at a table, looking over papers. "You're lucky we even got their assistance, Gilbert. I promise you, Miss Elizaveta is fine. Stop worrying about her."

Gilbert grumbled in response and continued his nervous pacing. In a day, they could have slaughtered Wild Card, increased the bounty on his head, and even found out that it was Elizaveta who broke him out and convicted her of crimes that came with an all expense paid trip to the executioner's chamber. Time was valuable here, and he'd already wasted most of today – he couldn't waste tonight and tomorrow morning as well. She could be dead by then!

"Gilbert! Stop pacing already!" Ludwig snapped, slamming down his papers in annoyance. "Just calm down and sit!"

"I can't!" Gilbert shot back. "We don't have the time to wait a day!"

"We've sent out word to the royal families of each kingdom that we are under the protection of Hearts and request their presence at a conference in Sector Ace tomorrow. We sent it very early this morning, so they should all have long since received them. They need time to travel and consider whether they even want to come. Do you even know anything about the royal families you're appealing to?"

"Uh….I…." Gilbert began. "I….okay, not really."

"I didn't think so," Ludwig said. "Come on, sit down. I'll explain it to you."

Gilbert pulled up a chair next to Ludwig. The blonde shuffled around his papers for a moment, finally finding the papers with pictures of the leaders of each realm. He slid them over to his brother and pointed as he explained each family.

"This is King Francis, Queen Lili, and Jack Vash of Diamonds," he explained. "Lili and Vash are Francis's niece and nephew. After Queen Jeanne died suddenly six years ago, Francis vowed never to remarry and named his sister's children as his joint rulers and heirs. Diamonds is a very liberal kingdom. They've always been equal and never sectored. Lili is quiet but highly intelligent and is in charge of the magic in Diamonds, so she should agree with you in a heartbeat. Her brother will be a different story because he's much more argumentative and less compassionate, but records show he tends to go along with his sister. Francis is very flirtatious and usually rather lighthearted, but he'll listen seriously to proposals. He should actually be fairly easy to get to agree with you; he's emotional and will probably be swayed by your love story as much as your logical proposal."

"Like your boyfriend?" Gilbert grinned and teased, forcing his mind away from Elizaveta and onto the current conversation. Ludwig turned scarlet and cleared his throat, his eyes never leaving the paper.

"Yes, like Feliciano. Now," he moved the papers around a bit, "This is King Alfred, Queen Arthur, and Jack Yao of Spades. They were put on the throne after the civil war in Spades. Arthur has been fighting since he was placed in charge to preserve the magical balance, since he is charge of keeping track of the magic in Spades. Spades contains a lot of magical powers; second to you, Arthur has the most magical powers. He was naturally born with them, as are all those destined to be the Queen of Spades. He's going to jump on your appeal to the magical balance. King Alfred came from the Spades equivalent of Sector 10, so he's going to sympathize with you since he understands how terrible the lower sectors are. Your love story of separation due to social rank is likely going to appeal to him as well since the basic idea is similar to the early beginnings of his friendship and later relationship with Arthur. Yao is well-learned and is considered very wise, so logic will sway him. He also is a strong believer in the magic balance and took it upon himself to educate himself on the topic, so he'll understand what you're talking about almost as well as Arthur or Lili. To be honest, Spades is most likely going to jump to your defense first. Alfred is impulsive, and usually Arthur is careful to keep him in check, but your magical balance appeal will soften him, and Yao should be similarly affected. Then Diamonds, and then Clubs will, of course, be last. Roderich is not going to want to listen, and your logic is going to have to be strong in order to convince him of anything. He's usually rational, but judging by the fact you…have a relationship…with his wife, he's probably not going to be irrational and bitter, even if he doesn't show it on the outside."

Gilbert nodded seriously. "Right. So as long as my logical arguments are strong, I'll be okay?"

"That's what we're hoping. You do understand the risk, don't you? If we fail, Hearts could end up in a war and you could end up captured again."

"I know. But…look, if Hearts end up in a war, then I'll fight in their military and do the best I can to make it right. As for my capture…I don't care about that. I'll do whatever it takes to get Elizaveta back, and I don't give a shit about the consequences. I'm too awesome for it not to work anyway." Gilbert grinned cheekily, but the chuckle he gave out had the slightest tremor of nervousness.

Ludwig sighed and shook his head. "Arrogant as usual."

"It's part of my undeniable charm."

"You really should take things more seriously. All right, let me hear your arguments."

"For what point?"

"Let's start with the magical balance."

"All right." Gilbert paused and thought for a moment. "The magical balance keeps everything in check. If it's disrupted, the world falls out of balance and bad things start to happen."

"What kind of bad things?" Ludwig interjected.

"You know, Luddy."

"I know, but the courts don't. Elaborate."

"Okay…if I were to be killed, uncontrolled magic would be released into the world. Evil spirits are formed from uncontrolled magic that is just floating around, and then there would be actually bad forces wreaking havoc on the world."

"Worse havoc than the Joker ever wreaked?"

Gilbert glared at Ludwig but kept his cool. "Yes. The damage the Joker causes depends on the person who is the Joker. Also, many crimes that are blamed on the Joker never happened. I've never been to Diamonds, so crimes blamed on me there are completely false. My personal crimes were an attempt to get my fiancée to realize I wasn't dead. The crimes of the Joker usually involve stealing from the rich and giving to the poor people in the lower sectors. Evil uncontrolled magical spirits wouldn't be selective in their crimes and would cause misfortunate to people no matter their standing in the sector system. They could even go as far as to maliciously destroy crops or kill people; the Joker has never gone that far."

"Very good answer," Ludwig praised. "Let's hear your arguments for desectorization now."

Gilbert began his argument, and Ludwig continued to interject questions as he went, lecturing him repeatedly on the importance of refuting claims in order to better support his point. They stayed up well into the darkness, the sitting room illuminated with candles, until Gilbert's arguments had scarcely any holes.

* * *

><p>"My lady? Could I ask you a question?"<p>

Angelique had brought Elizaveta her dinner, and Elizaveta was eating the food slowly on the bed. Roderich hadn't come to see her again – which was a good thing for the both of them – and Angelique had been her only companion since she arrived in Sector Ace.

"Sure," she answered after she swallowed. "Go ahead."

"The Joker…what is he like?"

"Gilbert? He's…." Elizaveta smiled fondly whilst she thought of how to describe him. "He's arrogant but it's not completely unfounded. He's the sweetest guy I've ever met but the most aggravating at the same time. He's lighthearted and doesn't like to be serious but he will calm down when he needs to. He acts tough and he is, but he's easily hurt all the same. Sometimes he jumps to conclusions and thinks the wrong thing, and when he finds out he's wrong, he does feel bad even if he doesn't show it." She took another bite of her piece of bread. "He's loyal and stubborn, and he'll do anything for his friends or family. He never had much, so he works hard to be the best he can be."

"Is he from a lower sector, ma'am?"

"Yes. But does that really matter? I don't care he's a ten. He's just Gilbert to me."

Angelique was quiet for a moment before she pulled a rumpled piece of paper from out of her pocket. She unfolded it and smoothed it out before handing it to Elizaveta.

"I found this…on King Roderich's desk. I thought you would want to see it."

Elizaveta took the paper and read it. It was from Hearts and had been signed by the Jack. It was a notice starting that Hearts was in full support of the Joker and that the military would be accompanying the Joker to Sector Ace tomorrow for a conference with all the leaders of the Kingdoms. It was a peaceful mission and no fighting was intended, simply diplomacy.

"Gilbert's coming," Elizaveta whispered and slowly grinned. Her heart jumped in her chest.

"I overheard King Roderich saying that you would not be joining them in the conference," Angelique said. "But he also said he would not be tightening the security on your room, even though his advisors said to."

"Good, I have to get there somehow." Elizaveta rose from the bed and began to pace around her room. "There's got to be some way out of here."

"My lady, if I may be so bold…I think I have an idea."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Somewhat of a filler, sorry about that! I needed to get the backstories and the dynamics of the other royal families in there somehow. And Angelique's idea ;D Any guesses as to what she's plotting? Oh, and I'm tweaking the epilogue now - just two more chapters and then we're at the epilogue - so if there's a specific character you want to know what happens to, let me know and I'll try to work them in somehow! =D So yeah, leave a review and tell me what you thought? :3<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

Ludwig woke Gilbert up the next morning with the information that the army was coming and he needed to be ready to go within the hour.

Gilbert jumped out of bed and bathed as quickly as he could, then dressed in his best surviving set of clothing. He went to exit the room and met Ludwig in the hall.

"Morning, Luddy!" he chimed. Ludwig raised an eyebrow at his attire.

"You're wearing that to appeal to multiple royal families?"

"Uh, yes?" Gilbert answered, looking down at his clothes. They might be a little bit dingy. "So?"

"Your pants are charred at the bottom, your shirt is missing a button, everything has a layer of ash over it, and the sleeves are too short on the shirt anyway."

Gilbert gave him somewhat of a pout. "It just shows the…uhm…poor conditions we have! Yeah! I'm too awesome to have to look all prissy anyway." He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, then looked up at Ludwig with a grin.

Ludwig sighed and shooed Gilbert back into his room. "I've got some extra clothes I keep here. I think I have something that'll fit you." He left the room and came back a minute later with grey pants, a black shirt, and a red tie. "Here, put this on and then come down for breakfast. The units that are accompanying us should arrive in roughly fifteen minutes." Ludwig shut the door on his way out.

Gilbert sighed and looked at the clothes. He'd never worn anything formal like that before, except one time to a cousin's wedding when he was probably thirteen. He changed into the pants. They were the tiniest bit too long, but they fit decently. He was torn between whether to frown or grin. When he'd left home, Ludwig had been fourteen and much shorter than him. Now he was taller. Shaking his head, he put on the shirt and tie, leaving the top button of the shirt open and the tie slightly loose. He felt stuffy and constrained otherwise. He left his room and bounded down the stairs, just in time to slide into a chair at the table. The maids were just clearing the dishes from the now-empty hall, and he snagged a roll quickly and ate it with a little leftover jam. His stomach was beginning to flip-flop; he was really going to appeal in about five hours.

Ludwig reentered the room. "Ah, there you are. We need to go." Gilbert stood and Ludwig nodded in approval at his new attire. "You look presentable now. Come, the units are waiting at the gates."

The two walked outside. Dozens of armed men on horses stood in ranks outside the gates of the property. Feliciano was dressed in his formal Jack attire – pink pants with hearts at the bottom, a brown top, a pink jacket, and a matching heart-covered hat – and was speaking with a man in an embellished Hearts military uniform. Ludwig and Gilbert approached the two. The man nodded gruffly in greeting.

"I am Commander Acerbi. I'll be leading the troops into Sector Ace."

"Thank you, Commander," Ludwig said and shook the man's hand.

"I appreciate your assistance," Gilbert added and extended his hand for the man to shake. "It really means a lot to me and I can't thank you enough." His hand stayed unshaken in the air for a moment before the commander clasped his hand and gave it a shake.

"It was my honor after hearing your proposal, Joker Beilschmidt," the man replied. "Your friends that will be accompanying us have gone to fetch your horses from the stable. We shall leave upon their return." The commander turned and left, going back to his own horse that was standing by his troops.

Horse hooves sounded behind Gilbert, and he turned to see Antonio and Lovino walking toward him, each holding the reins of two horses and directing them. Antonio waved brightly at him.

"Morning, Gil!" Antonio chimed and handed him the reins of a black horse. Gilbert noticed that the horse was Senka, the very horse that he and Elizaveta had escaped on to get to Wild Card. He petted her muzzle; he hadn't even noticed that she'd come with them to Hearts.

"You've been with us through a lot, girl," he muttered to her and Senka whinnied in response. He smiled and mounted Senka. Antonio and Lovino had already mounted and were riding out of the gates. Ludwig was assisting Feliciano onto the back of his horse; their exchange suggested Feliciano had been too terrified to attempt to ride a horse on his own. Ludwig was blushing as Feliciano had wrapped his arms around his torso to stay on the horse. Gilbert grinned cheekily and shot him a thumbs up, which was met by a deeper blush and glare from Ludwig.

"We're ready when you are, Commander!" Gilbert called and Acerbi nodded in acknowledgement, yelling instructions to his troops in Italian. The company moved out quickly. Gilbert smiled to himself and flicked Senka's reins to move her at pace with the troupe.

* * *

><p>Elizaveta checked the clock on her wall. 1:32 PM. Gilbert and his group were supposed to arrive a little after two, according to the letter that Angelique had stolen off Roderich's desk. She got up and went to the doors. The guards today were all young teenage boys that couldn't have been older than sixteen – they must have just enlisted in the military recently and been placed on palace guard. Not only did Roderich not tighten her security, he loosened it – perhaps unintentionally, but she wasn't complaining.<p>

"I'm going to take a bath now. So you can't let anyone but Angelique in, all right? And no peeking, got it?" She winked at the boys, who all blushed and looked at her with their mouths agape or quickly averted their eyes. She shut the doors and laughed to herself a moment before going into the washroom and drawing a hot bath.

She came back out of the washroom in a white bathrobe and her hair in a towel turban several minutes later, and Angelique was sitting on her bed.

"I overheard the guards just a few moments ago," she said excitedly. "They saw the Hearts force on the horizon. They should be here in twenty minutes."

Elizaveta grinned widely, pulling out various hair products from drawers and handing Angelique the clothes she had been wearing today. "Are you sure this will work, Angelique?"

"Positive. The guards are all young and unfamiliar and won't pay much attention besides," she said and accepted the bundles of clothes. "We'll put your hair in pigtails, and it'll look dark because it's damp, and my uniform will fit you just fine. No one will even think for a second that you're not me when you slip out the door with the laundry."

"All right. I trust you," Elizaveta replied and nodded determinedly. Angelique went into the washroom and changed into Elizaveta's clothes whilst Elizaveta ruffled her hair with the towel to stop it from dripping water and then set about combing her damp locks into ponytails that matched Angelique's. Her hair was a bit longer than Angelique's but she doubted anyone would notice. Angelique emerged from the washroom a moment after she had finished her pigtails in the green dress Elizaveta had been wearing all day.

"It looks exact, my lady," Angelique said as she complimented her pigtails.

"Angelique, you're breaking me out of house arrest to go meet with my fiancé against your King's directions. I think you can stop calling me that now and just go with Elizaveta."

Angelique smiled. "Okay, Elizaveta, then." She handed the brunette her clothes. "Go change. They should be arriving in the palace in ten minutes or less."

Elizaveta took the stack of clothing and disappeared into the washroom, changing into the green tights, black skirt, white blouse, and black cap that were customary for the palace maids to wear. She managed to squeeze her feet into the black flats that Angelique wore with her uniform; it wasn't the most comfortable and they were a half-size too small, but she didn't have time to worry about the shoes. She came out of the bathroom.

"I knew it would fit!" Angelique chimed, standing up to adjust the skirt slightly. "The only thing we can't really change that would give you away is your eye color. Just…don't directly look anyone in the eye until you've met with the Jo- uhm, Gilbert's group. Otherwise you might be found out."

Elizaveta nodded. "Got it. I'll keep my head down."

"Exactly." Angelique looked up at the clock. "They should be in the palace heading for the meeting hall now. Go!"

Elizaveta nodded and grabbed the basket full of the laundry she was supposed to be taking to be washed.

"Thank you, Angelique. And – when they notice you're not me – please just say I made you do it."

Angelique smiled, "Friend don't throw friends under the horse, Elizaveta. Don't worry about that. Just go quickly."

Elizaveta frowned but nodded, opening the door and bowing her head low as she ducked out of the chambers with the basket of laundry. The guards did not acknowledge her, and she walked quickly down the hall. When she had turned out of sight of the guards and no one else was in sight, she hid the basket of clothing behind a curtain hanging next to a window and changed course for the meeting room.

She stared at her feet whenever she heard someone approaching, and managed to evade anyone who could possibly catch her escape. It used to bother her that no one acknowledged the hardworking maid staff, but for once she was grateful for the lack of attention the uniform drew. She heard the low noises of a crowd as she approached the hallway outside the meeting hall.

" – are all already waiting inside, and we just sent someone in to tell them we're ready to speak when they are ready to listen – "

Elizaveta looked up at the crowd to see Gilbert being instructed by a young man with slicked back blonde hair. He was nodding seriously and dressed well. Although he was putting forth an air of composure, she saw he was tapping a finger slightly against his leg – a tick he only got when he was incredibly nervous. She stopped in the hallway a couple yards away and watched him for a moment, smiling happily.

"Gilbert!" she called out and ran toward him. Her cap fell off as she sprinted across the hallway. He turned to look at her, his expression changing from confusion to shock to a gigantic grin across his face as he moved to catch her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his torso and hugged him as hard as she could, and he held her the same way around her waist as he lifted her up into the air and clutched her to him as tightly as he could.

"I'm so glad you're all right," he whispered to her quietly and she smiled into his shoulder.

"The same to you," she replied. They pulled away and Gilbert set her down, but they remained loosely in the other's embrace. "You weren't hurt too badly, were you? In the fight? I was worried sick about you."

"I'm too awesome for injuries. I healed within a couple days. I'm completely fine. What about you? They knocked you out. How's your head?"

"I had a headache for a day but I'm fine," she answered, still grinning happily at him.

"Have they been treating you okay?"

"I'm on house arrest, but I've been treated fine other than that."

He opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by someone clearing his throat. He turned and saw Ludwig giving him a slight look of disapproval.

"Dude, Luddy, let a guy reunite with his awesome fiancée," he said. "Lizzie, this is Ludwig, my little brother. You remember him, don't you?"

She smiled in recognition. "Of course! The last time I saw you was right after Gilbert went missing, wasn't it, though? You've grown a lot. It's nice to see you again in…less upsetting exchanges." She reached her hand out and Ludwig shook it politely. "Why did you call the conference, anyway?" she asked, addressing both Ludwig and Gilbert. "My maid stole the letter from Roderich to show me, but it didn't say exactly why you were coming."

"We're here to appeal the death sentence on Gilbert and explain the magical balance issues that his death would cause, and push for desectorization," Ludwig answered.

"And…well, hopefully, if everything works out awesomely, we can be together," Gilbert added quietly. Elizaveta smiled at him and pecked his cheek quickly.

"I'm coming in with you," Elizaveta declared. "I agree with you completely and I want to be in there and help you if I can."

Ludwig frowned, "I don't know if –"

"You heard the lady," Gilbert interjected. "She's coming in too."

Ludwig sighed and opened his mouth to speak when the tall, wooden doors to the meeting room opened and a servant exited and approached the crowd, the doors shutting behind him quickly after.

"The royal families are ready to hear your appeals," he announced. "You may now enter."

The Hearts soldiers moved out of the way, except for four of them that would act as guards. Antonio and Lovino moved out of the crowd, Antonio shooting Gilbert a thumbs up and Lovino gave them an encouraging nod. Elizaveta turned to Gilbert and straightened his tie.

"You ready?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I'm ready," he replied quietly, turning toward the doors, his hand finding hers. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. Ludwig told the servant they were ready. The doors opened again, and thus began the meeting that could change the world forever.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Second to last chapter! Almost done :) I'm going to DC for a week or so, so I might be a bit slow to respond to reviews, but I'd still love to hear your opinion! This new cover things looks pretty cool, too, it makes me wish I had any art skills XD Anyway! I hope you enjoyed and tell me what you think!<strong>


	16. Chapter 16

They stepped into the stone floor of the meeting hall. The royal families were seated behind a long table on a raised platform from the rest of the floor, all staring at the entering group. Elizaveta saw Roderich's eyes narrow as she entered with her hand intertwined with Gilbert's, but she ignored him and held her head high. She knew these people; she had meetings with them before. A couple of them she had thought she would like to consider friends. But facing them as one of what had been previously classified as the enemy support was so very different. Her heart hammered against her rib cage, and she could feel Gilbert's beating just as vigorously at the point where their wrists touched. Both of them put forth their best air of confidence and composure. The doors to the room clicked shut behind them. Silence settled over the room for a moment.

"You are ze Joker, _oui_?" a blonde man Gilbert recognized as King Francis broke the silence.

"Yes, sir. I'm the Joker."

"And do you 'ave another name?"

"Gilbert. Gilbert Beilschmidt."

"Well, Mr. Beilschmidt," a man with blonde hair and thick eyebrows broke in from down the table. _Queen Arthur_, Gilbert noted to himself. "Why have you called us here today?"

"Well, your Highnesses, there are a few points that I want to speak on," Gilbert said, his voice slightly shaking. He paused and regained his composure. Elizaveta squeezed his hand in encouragement and then let go as he took a step forward to speak. "The first point being that I want to launch an appeal on my death sentence. My grounds for this are the magical balance. You see, the way the magical balance works is that a certain amount of people possess and control magic while a certain amount of magic is floating around, if you will, without control. The evil spirits that everyone becomes so frightened over residing in the Dark Forest are really nonexistent, unless the balance is disrupted. If I were to die without passing on the magic to someone else, my powers would be released into the amount of magic that is just floating around and completely mess up the balance. With all that extra magic in the uncontrolled part of the balance, then evil spirits would form, and we'd have a gigantic problem."

"Do you have any evidence of that?" Jack Vash inquired.

"Mr. Beilschmidt is entirely correct," Queen Arthur stated before Gilbert could reply. "The evil spirits only have a chance to form when the balance is disrupted. Long ago, the world had two Jokers in order to keep the balance. About one hundred years ago, the other Joker, a young boy named Peter from Spades, was killed by the government in a rather brutal manner of execution. He was my great-great-grandfather's youngest brother. His murder caused the release of highly concentrated and untamed magic into the atmosphere, which then lead to some spirit generation. The Queen at the time understood the balance and was able to absorb some of the magic to add onto the magic already present in those in the Queen's position, and the other Joker at the time took on some additional magic – but there was a time in Spades that was marked by droughts, famines, and inner turmoil facilitated by the evil spirits generated by the uncontrolled magic."

Gilbert nodded earnestly. "Exactly! Without anyone to control it, the power runs rampant and will destroy anything in its path. And I'm tired of being an outcast that being hunted down to be killed. The Joker before me, Fritz, he hated being an outcast they way he was and being hunted. This feud between the Joker and the rest of the world has gone on long enough, and lead to the murder of a young boy. How old was he?"

"Peter was ten," Arthur answered.

"Exactly. It's horrifying that the feud has brought about the execution of an innocent child merely for possessing magical powers. Fritz used to tell me about how much he longed to no longer be hunted and for equality. I agree with him completely, and I want to work with the governments – to preserve the magical balance, not be considered an abomination. So, respectfully, I propose in addition to my death sentence being repealed that I be allowed to help the government maintain the balance in any way I can."

"Arthur was just saying the other day that there should be some sort of council to help maintain the balance," King Alfred piped up. "So…how about we create that council right now? Gilbert can be a part of it."

"Yes," Arthur agreed. "As the Joker, Mr. Beilschmidt would be absolutely crucial on such a council." Yao nodded in agreement when Alfred asked if he approved.

"So…Spades votes in favor of the repeal of the death sentence and follows up with a proposal to create a council to avoid screwing up the balance," Alfred announced.

There was a murmur around the hall as the royal families began conversing amongst themselves to decide if they should back the proposals. Gilbert looked over at Elizaveta and Ludwig, who were standing a yard or two behind him. Elizaveta gave him a bright smile and Ludwig nodded his encouragement. Gilbert turned back to face the deliberating heads of state. After twenty or so minutes, King Francis spoke.

"Queen Lili is in charge of our magic department, and she 'as informed us that such a council is very important," he said. "We also agree that the feud should be ended. One young life has already been claimed directly and unjustly by this feud in our eyes, along with untold numbers caught in ze middle, and we wish for no more lives lost. Therefore, Diamonds rules in favor of the proposal of _Monsieur_ Beilschmidt, and the proposal of Spades."

Feliciano, who was seated alone at the far end of the table and had been quiet this whole time, chimed, "Hearts seconds that!"

All eyes turned on Roderich. He was sitting with his hands folded on the table, his eyes looking stoically at the wall that held the doors, over the heads of everyone on the floor. He said nothing.

"Ze majority vote has already been obtained," Francis said to him. "But we need to know if you will go against us or not."

"The Joker has caused the Kingdoms problems for centuries – and you're just going to let him off like that?" Roderich snapped.

"It is the logical thing to do, aru," Jack Yao replied. "Mr. Beilschmidt has done us no harm. He stole some money from the rich and gave it to the poor. He probably saved some from starvation if the reports on the conditions of the lower sectors that have been leaked are correct. He is offering to help maintain the balance of order, and he has the power to do that."

"With all due respect, many of the crimes and problems that have been blamed on the Joker across the centuries make no logical sense – Diamonds blamed their low crop yield on the Joker a couple years ago, but I've never set foot in Diamonds," Gilbert explained.

"'e is an easy target, I believe we've all used him unfairly as a scapegoat. It was easier than telling ze people that they are awful at farming. My apologies." Francis nodded at Gilbert, who gave him a nod back signifying his acceptance of the apology.

"You're giving him far too much power," Roderich gritted out through clenched teeth. "He will only abuse it."

"You are letting your personal life cloud your judgment," Arthur interjected. "His relationship with Queen Elizaveta is preventing you from examining the logical side of his argument. Focus on the argument, evidence, and what his proposal would do for the world, not your vendetta against him."

"That's not what it is! And even if that was true, how could you trust a man that would run off with another man's wife?" Roderich yelled. "I refuse because he killed members of my royal guard!"

"Personally, I did not," Gilbert corrected. "I understand that other members of the village did kill members of the royal guard, but they are all incredibly guilty and were acting in defense of the town. People only really began dying after your troops began torching our village. We lost men, too, and the smoke from all the burned buildings has caused some members to have permanent breathing problems. I believe it was a shameful and damaging battle on both ends."

Roderich opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by Francis. "Look 'ere, Roderich. Think of this as a peace meeting. It was a battle in ze war, and now peace is being made. 'e is sorry. Both sides were damaged. Let it go."

Roderich sighed and put his face in his hands, staying still for several minutes. He then raised his head, swallowed, and looked down at the papers in front of him. "Clubs…." he began and then trailed off, closing his eyes as though he was in pain. "Clubs…votes…in favor of all proposals currently standing."

Gilbert grinned widely and turned around to beam at Elizaveta and Ludwig. Elizaveta was grinning just as broadly at him, and Ludwig was even smiling proudly. He was free.

"Didn't you have something else to propose, Joker?" Roderich spat, looking down at Gilbert. Gilbert turned back to face them.

"Yes," Gilbert answered. "My second proposal is desectorization of Clubs."

Roderich stared at him, his eyes wide, his jaw clenched, his mouth in a tight line. The other royal families nodded in agreement with Gilbert, and Arthur waved for Gilbert to elaborate.

"All the things that have been happening recently – well, namely Lizzie, ah, Elizaveta and me running away – have happened because of sectors. If we hadn't had sectors, we would have been able to get married and live as we wanted to. There wouldn't be all this mess with marriages and running away. I was going to have to leave my family to be with her and move to another Kingdom, and she was going to have to as well. It's also just plain unfair to withhold education, jobs, resources, and other things from citizens of your country just because of whom their parents are and where they were born. I'm from Sector 10, and it's horrible down there. The crime rate was always high, if someone was sick or hurt they couldn't get health care, and the government doesn't care about you at all."

"When Gilbert went missing," Elizaveta began softly and all eyes turned to her. Gilbert smiled softly at her and she continued. "His family – and I did, too – went to the local government to ask that a missing persons notice be placed on him, or a search party go out. But the local government simply told them that he'd either gotten himself killed and that he'd turn up eventually if he was alive."

"They threw us out of the building," Ludwig added. "The head of the local government of Klubok was from Sector Ace and refused to speak with us because he thought we were scum."

King Alfred slammed his hand on the table. "Spades agrees with Mr. Beilschmidt. Sectors are wrong, Roderich. C'mon. You're the last one left that's sectorized, and take it from another guy who's from the lower sectors – they're horrible. It's not fair and it causes a world of problems. You just need to do it already."

"What do you know about sectors in my Kingdom? You've been on the throne for only a couple years. Sectors are a historical element to Clubs! You will regret one day that you tore down your walls. Crime will leak throughout your cities and poverty will abound!" Roderich shot back.

"Inequality causes more problems," Alfred began evenly, glaring at Roderich. "Do you want to get caught in a Civil War the way Spades was? It may have put me on the throne but it was a bloody and gruesome memory I don't like to think about. So many people died – my brother died, Arthur's sister died – and no one needed to if the government had simply given equal rights. We're talking about people here, Roderich, not your historical legacy of being divided. Division breeds dissent, anger, problems, and is a slap in the face to human rights. People are dying everyday in the lower sectors because they don't have fair treatment. People, humans just like you. They are no less than you as much as you have been trained to think that they are. Doesn't every single person deserve the right to education, food, sanitation, clean water, and the ability to find a job that isn't damaging to your health? You know what's morally correct here, Roderich. You have to desectorize."

Feliciano chimed in his agreement again. King Francis nodded and declared that Diamonds supported the resolution.

"You're all being ridiculous," Roderich muttered. He looked embarrassed, but desperately tried to keep his composure. He took a deep breath again and looked down at his papers. Silence cast over the room as he thought to himself.

"The walls need to come down, Roderich. You know that. You care about your people, I know you do." Elizaveta said softly in his direction. He offered her no acknowledgement, just simply kept his head down. After several more minutes, he raised his head and pushed up his glasses.

"I'll…put out an executive order for the walls to come down."

Elizaveta cheered and hugged Gilbert, who spun her around in joy. After he put her down, he clapped Ludwig on the back and grabbed him in a hug. Ludwig paused for a moment before hugging his brother back, and then Elizaveta gave him a quick hug.

"Is zat all, Gilbert?" King Francis asked, a small smile on his lips at the sight of the rejoicing group.

"Yes, wait – No. I have one last proposal. Please pardon the charges on Elizaveta, King Roderich."

Roderich just looked blankly at him and Gilbert continued. "She told me she was on house arrest when we were talking outside. If I'm pardoned…I'm begging you to pardon her as well." He swallowed his pride and bowed respectfully to Roderich.

"She is pardoned," Roderich answered evenly. Gilbert grinned and stood up from his bow.

"Thank you. That is all I had to say."

"Well, zen the meeting is over, _non_?" Francis said. Everyone nodded, but Arthur added,

"I want to speak with some people about the forming of the council. Is there a smaller conference room we could meet in, Roderich?"

"Yes, just ask the servant stationed outside the door. He will lead you there."

"Thank you. Anyone who wants to be a part of the beginning of the council can come with me. Mr. Beilschmidt, please accompany us in a moment."

Gilbert nodded, "Okay, I'm coming." He turned back to Elizaveta and kissed her on the lips. "We're free. We're both free."

"I know," she said, hugging him tightly. "You did it, Gilbert. You did it."

Someone cleared their throat next to them, and they turned to see Roderich standing a yard or so away, papers under his arm, looking uncomfortable.

"Miss Elizaveta, if I may have a word with you? In private?"

Gilbert raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to reply, but a voice calling from the other end of the room cut him off.

"Gilbert, we're starting soon!"

He turned to look at the group and nodded. Elizaveta kissed him on the cheek quickly. "Go on, Gil. It's fine. I'll see you after the meeting is over."

"I love you," he responded.

"I love you too. Now go on."

He nodded and shot a look at Roderich before jogging toward the door to catch up with the group heading to the meeting. The doors clicked shut behind him, and Elizaveta was alone in the expansive meeting hall with Roderich.

Elizaveta turned away from the doors to face Roderich. "What did you need to speak with me about?"

"Come, sit," he instructed and went over to sit down at the table, and she followed and sat next to him. He pulled out some papers and a pen, but kept them somewhat out of her view.

"Is it true you were engaged to Gilbert before we got married?" he asked.

"Yes. We'd been engaged for over a year."

Roderich wrote something down on the sheet of paper. "And…uhm…had you slept with him before?"

Elizaveta blushed and cleared her throat. "Uhm…I…yes. I had."

Roderich made some more notes on the papers, then pushed them across the surface to her. The top of the papers read "Annulment of Marriage."

"I'm citing the grounds as fraud, since your father said you were a virgin when we were married, current engagement upon being married, and non-consummation as grounds," Roderich explained and signed his name at the bottom of the paper. Elizaveta took the small stack and began glancing through the pages, making sure she agreed with everything. She read the documents for a long time before closing the packet and finding everything to her satisfaction.

"So…we're separated after this?"

"Officially we were never even married."

"You know that this won't just disappear, though, when I sign this paper," Elizaveta said. "The media, the history books…they'll put this in there."

Roderich gave somewhat of a half-smile. "I think they're already started to write books about you, ever since it leaked to the public you were on house arrest for assisting the Joker escape. You made headlines. The Joker Queen, they call you."

Elizaveta laughed quietly. "What a title."

"Well, you'll lose the Queen title after you sign the paper. You'll just be Miss Elizaveta Héderváry again."

"And I'm free to go?" She took the pen in her hand and hovered it over the signature line.

"Exactly."

She pushed the pen to the paper and signed her name firmly in the black ink, then slid the papers back to him. He nodded.

"I just need the signature from the Director of Palatial Affairs and it's official," he said. "It shouldn't take more than a week."

Elizaveta nodded in response and stood up. She extended her hand to him to shake. "Thank you, Roderich. I wish you well, and…I'm sorry for any pain I have caused you. Really. You're a good guy, Roderich. You're good husband material…just not for me."

He half-smiled and accepted her handshake. "Thank you, Miss Elizaveta. I wish you and Gilbert the best."

"Thank you," she said and turned to go, leaving Roderich sitting by himself at the table. She exited through the double doors.

"Which direction did Gilbert and Arthur and the rest of them go?" she inquired to a guard, who instructed her to the conference room. She thanked him and made her way toward the room. When she approached the room, people milling about outside, seemingly done with the meeting. Gilbert saw her and grinned, excusing himself from a conversation with King Francis to meet her.

"Hey, _liebeling_," he said, leaning down to kiss her.

She smiled. "Hello, sweetheart. How was your meeting?"

"Awesome!" he replied. "We've got the basic plan worked out, but we still need to get people to sit on the council from all the kingdoms other than a representative of the royal family. So we've decided we're going to meet in Diament – I think that's what they called the capital of Diamonds – in a couple weeks to get everything completely worked out."

"That's fantastic!"

"Yeah," he said. "It looks like I'm going to have to travel a lot, but that's okay, you can come with me, right? Oh, what did Roderich want?"

"He needed me to sign some annulment papers," Elizaveta answered. "Our marriage should be dissolved within the week."

Gilbert once again picked her up and spun her around, laughing happily. He kissed her firmly after he set her done. "We're completely free now, Lizzie. Damn, we really are free. We can do what we want, go where we want, live where we want…where do you want to live, Lizzie? Anywhere you want."

She paused and thought for a second. "Are…they going to rebuild Wild Card? Or was it completely torched to the ground?"

"We decided to rebuild it," Gilbert answered. "Antonio and Lovino actually left right after we got out of the first meeting to go tell them the news and get started on rebuilding."

"I want to go back to Wild Card. We can help rebuild, and…I love it there."

Gilbert grinned. "It's awesome. I was hoping you'd say that." He grabbed her hand and they walked off to leave the palace, free and together.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: Well, here we are. The last chapter. There's an epilogue, of course, that I'll probably post tomorrow or even just later today. I might even post it right after this goes up. Who knows! Anyway, thank you so to everyone who has stuck with me through this story and read. I really appreciate it. I don't know when another fanfiction will be up...I've currently got a few stories in the works that are original instead of fanfiction. I plan to have the first one up on my fictionpress by the end of the summer (August at the latest, maybe sooner if possible?). If you'd like to see that, you can watch me on fictionpress; my username is the same on there as it is on here. Fictionpress ~purpleskyjuliet<strong>

**Please tell me what you thought! I've been getting less feedback on the later chapters than I did in the beginning so I'd really love to hear your thoughts, good or bad!**

**Thank you so much to everyone again, and happy future reading!**


	17. Epilogue

He rode his horse into town just as the sun began to set. He was tired from a long day of meetings and travelling, and he smiled seeing the stables come into sight. He dismounted at the stables and led his horse into a stall.

"Good girl, Senka," he said and patted her muzzle, then handed her a carrot. He left the stables and walked the rest of way into town.

Children were playing outside in the last few minutes before they would be called for dinner. A little girl with brown hair and blood-red eyes was playing tag with a group of friends but stopped when she saw the man strolling into town.

"Daddy!" she cried and ran for him, right into her father's arms. He picked her up and swung his little girl around.

"There's my girl," he said happily. "How was your day, Liesolette?"

"Awesome!" she chimed and he laughed and grinned, carrying her toward their house. Antonio and Lovino were out in their garden next door, picking some tomatoes.

"Welcome back, Gil!" Antonio chirped and waved. "Hey, Liesolette!"

"Hi, Uncle Toni! Hi, Uncle Lovi!" she responded and waved at them. Lovino's scowl broke into a small smile and he returned the little girl's wave.

"Have you seen Demetrio, Liesolette?" Lovino asked.

"Uh-huh!" Liesolette answered. "He was playing with tag with me and Audra!"

"Go get your son and tell him it's almost time for dinner," Lovino instructed Antonio.

"Our son, Lovi! We adopted him together!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just go get him."

Antonio laughed at Lovino's remark and skipped off in the direction of where the children were playing. Feliks and Toris were walking home with their adopted daughter, Audra, and Tino and Berwald were heading home with their adopted son, a boy they'd named Peter, after the deceased Joker of Spades.

Gilbert smiled as Liesolette waved cheerily to her friends. He turned to Lovino. "Is Lizzie home?"

"Yeah, she just came back from Angelique's a little while ago. Antonio gave her some tomatoes. She was helping her plan for her wedding."

"Ah, I see. Well, I better get home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Lovino nodded his farewell, picked up a basket of tomatoes, and went inside his house to make dinner.

Gilbert crossed the small distance between their houses and opened the door to his. He set down Liesolette on the floor, and she went skipping off into the house.

"Honey, I'm home," he called out in a joking voice. Elizaveta turned from the stove to smile at him.

"Welcome back, Gil," she greeted, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him hello. "How was your meeting in Spades?"

"Pretty awesome. We worked out the issues with the magical texts being withheld from students and banned in certain schools," he said. "Oh, and I got to see Ludwig and Feli! Ludwig said he likes being the King of Hearts, and the guy they appointed Queen – Kiku, I think – seemed like he knew what he was doing."

"That's good," she replied. "They took a long time reestablishing the triad."

"It seems to be working now. Oh, Francis was there too! He sends his _amour_," Gilbert said in an overly exaggerated, terrible French accent, bowing and winking in mimicry of his friend. Elizaveta laughed.

"Did you go out and get hammered?"

"…Maybe."

"Don't tell Toni. He'll be sad he missed out. You guys always go out when Francis visits or after a meeting."

"Ah, it was his son's birthday. He wouldn't have missed that for the world. Besides, they went out and got drunk by themselves after Liesolette was born and told everyone what proud uncles they were. Poor Lovino had to carry them both home and explain to the guard from Diamonds why their king was drunk off his ass. We're even. By the way, how's Fritz?"

Elizaveta rested a hand on her stomach. She was barely showing. "He's been fine. He made me throw up this morning, but other than that he's been a good boy."

"Now, Fritz," Gilbert said sternly to the baby bump. "You know better than to take Mommy sick." Elizaveta laughed and Gilbert grinned and kissed her stomach and then her cheek. "Here, sit down. I'll finish dinner."

"Thanks," she said and sat down at the table. Liesolette came bouncing out of her bedroom with a story she wanted to tell about her day. Elizaveta picked her up and put her on her lap and Liesolette chattered brightly to her parents as the family sat together, the Joker, the ex-Queen, their princess and soon-to-be prince, a family and air of happiness worth all the ordeals they went through to get to today.


End file.
